What does News mean to you?

I am very thankful for the internet. Not just catching up with old friends through email and blogs, which is so much easier than old methods (although I DO enjoy a good long chat over a cup of cocoa more than an email, I can read emails much more often!). Also, I like the fact that I have a much greater choice of from whom and where I get news. When I was young I just could not understand my Dad's fascination with the news each evening. It was soooooo boring to me. I am sorry to say that I really didn't understand his interest in news of a war half-way around the world. I didn't realize that he had once been that soldier on a battlefield fighting for our country. I didn't understand that he was interested in what laws were passed or not because I did not comprehend that they affected how much pay he brought home or whether our dilapidated school bus was replaced or when my brother would have to sign up for the draft.

Today a friend sent me an email about the tornadoes in Iowa. Sounds remote and boring, right? But those people are her friends and relatives and former classmates. Since they are her friends they are in some respects my concern, too. People killed, injured, a large chunk of the town completely destroyed and other parts badly damaged. So today I sat my children down and explained how a "boring" news story about another part of the country is a call to prayer for people who could be our friends or relatives or even us. Yesterday we took a few minutes to talk about and pray for young men serving our country, and families who have lost sons and husbands. No, I don't want them to be worried or fret or "scarred" but I do want them to be sensitive, realistic and understanding. And to grasp one of the best reasons for news - the ability to pray for and often help others whenever we can.