Growing Pains

I was sitting in bed most of this past week watching reality t.v. and trying to recover from my appendectomy. I watched a lot of "good" bad t.v. I saw 2 "Keeping Up the Kardashian's" marathons, The Real Housewives of NYC marathon, Flavor of Love (Why?), and some daytime talk shows. One of the talk shows that I caught was "The View." On Tuesday or Wednesday (I get the days mixed up), Kirk Cameron was the guest. I am not sure how many of you remember Kirk, but when I was about ages 10 through 12, my bedroom walls were littered with "Teen Beat" and "Big Bopper" pin-ups of Mike Seaver a.k.a. Kirk Cameron from the sitcom "Growing Pains." (Forgive my generous misuse of quotes!) Once the show ended, I lost track of my former crush.

Now, I am all caught up and have to tell you how impressed I am with this man. Kirk Cameron started on "Growing Pains" at age 17. He was an atheist. During his time on the show he found God and accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He began questioning his storylines and challenging the morals of the t.v. writers who had his character doing/saying things that Kirk was not comfortable with as a Christian and as a role model. (That says a lot for a teenage boy who was probably making lots of money and could have been with most any young girl at the time!) The storylines were altered--after all he was the whole reason most people watched the show. (In my opinion!) When the show ended, he went on to marry his t.v. girlfriend, Chelsea Noble and they have been together for 17 years! Kirk and Chelsea have 6 children. They adopted 4 children who are multi-racial and more recently had 2biological children. 17 years and 6 kids is a lot in Hollywood! (They are totally kicking Brangelina's butt!) Kirk now runs a Christian Evangelical website, radio, media empire (if you will) called The Way of the Master. He also has a new book coming out called "Still Growing," which is what he was promoting on The View. (Too quote or not too quote-that is the question?)

I am sure that I sound like Wikipedia or an advertisement for Kirk Cameron right now, which was not my intention. I was just thinking that in Hollywood where scientology, kabbalah, atheism, drugs, and sex are so "talked about" and "in", (And I don't mean to relate scientology or kabbalah to drugs or sex), this man chose Jesus. I know there are more celebs out there that have walked the same walk. I was just touched my the sincerity of my old flame and was left thinking that maybe I didn't have such bad taste in boys (when I was young, of course!) after all!