House of Payne

Have you ever seen Tyler Perry’s House of Payne? It’s a sitcom on TBS. I have to admit that when it first came out on TV I had no interest in the show based on the commercials I had seen. I didn’t want to watch another bad basic cable sitcom that would probably end up canceled soon anyways. Besides, Jasmin had already dragged me to see Diary of a Mad Black Woman, which I thought would be a comedy but only turned out to be more of a drama and a chick flick, not my thing. So I figured Tyler Perry stuff wasn’t for me. But when Jasmin was watching House of Payne one day while I was at home, I figured since it was the only thing on I would watch it. Some moments made me laugh, some moments were cheesy but it was how they resolved the conflict at the end of the episode that caught my attention. In the episode I saw a family member had been addicted to drugs and left her husband and kids behind to live with their aunt and uncle. The woman who was on drugs stole her aunt’s checkbook and bought tons of appliances to sell and feed her drug habit. When the aunt found out about her stolen check she was going to go confront her and give her a piece of her mind, and a piece of the baseball bat she brought with her just in case things got crazy. When the aunt saw how sad and demoralized her niece was and how depressing her life got, the aunt had a change of heart and wanted her to come home. She refused to go home, but the aunt did the only thing she knew how to do. She asked her if she could pray for her, and when she was done she closed her prayer in Jesus’ name. I couldn’t believe it! How amazing! I was actually watching a TV show on regular TV that prayed in Jesus’ Name! This completely changed my mind and how I viewed the show. I was so inspired to see a family reach out to God like that in their time of need. The show is now in its 6th season and has just signed a contract to produce 40 more episodes. Thank God there is a show like this on TV.

Lots of people in the world can look at a show like this and call it whatever bad name they want. But I know that God needs to be the center of all of our households, not just something we do on Sunday mornings. The message bible puts it this way:

Hosea 6:6 I'm after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings.

This week I want to encourage you to keep Christ at the center of everything you do, not just an after thought or a last resort when you don’t know how to fix things yourself.

You can find out more about the show by clicking this link
http://www.tbs.com/video/index/#/all-video/shows/tyler-perry's-house-of-payne/full-episodes}