Click here to listen to the radio version.
Click here to search the AOG archives.
Apples of Gold
Radio Script for February 23, 2011
“Hannah Montana Destroyed My Family”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
Billy Ray Cyrus makes an incredible statement in next month’s GQ magazine.
He says that the hit TV show “Hannah Montana” destroyed his family.
Billy Ray is the father in the show, and Hannah Montana is played by his daughter Miley.
It sounds like a wonderful opportunity, doesn’t it?
I mean, just imagine that you are loving father with a 12-year-old daughter, and the Disney corporation offers to pay you both a lot of money to do a family-friendly TV show together. You get to work with your daughter. It’s a good job with a good income, and you can all be together in one place. Doesn’t that sound like a great opportunity for your family?
In the interview, Billy Ray was asked, “Do you wish Hannah Montana had never happened?”
“I hate to say it, but yes, I do,” he said. “Yeah, I’d take it back in a second. For my family to be here and just be everybody okay, safe and sound and happy and normal, would have been fantastic. Heck, yeah. I’d erase it all in a second if I could.”
It might seem like Hannah Montana has been around forever, but just five years ago you’d never heard of it. The show debuted in March 2006, and took off like a rocket. By Christmas, Disney was selling Hannah Montana dolls and clothing and jewelry; and by February 2008, the Hannah Montana franchise was so important that Disney gathered dozens of leaders for an international meeting to plan Hannah Montana’s future.
And there was Billy Ray Cyrus and his little girl Miley, right in the middle of it, a real father-daughter success story.
And yet Billy Ray says it destroyed his family and he would take it all back in a second. How can that be?
Let’s take a look at something Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapter 7 Jesus said, “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
That seems to be a fitting description of Billy Ray’s family, “great was its fall.” That includes a divorce from his wife and separation from his famous daughter.
Meanwhile, Miley keeps tarnishing her Hannah Montana image. Her 18th birthday party was held in a bar and video was captured of her smoking a bong.
Billy Ray said, “There’s a train wreck happening and my daughter’s right in the middle of it.”
He said he heard about other photos or videos that Miley’s handlers were “trying to make disappear.” When he tried to intervene and see what was going on in his daughter’s life, one of her handlers told Billy, “It’s none of your business.”
Can you imagine being the father of a teenager and being told “It’s none of your business”?
That may not be what Billy Ray originally signed up for, but it’s a result of building on a foundation of sand. That is exactly the kind of thing that happens to a family when it builds on worldly sand instead of the rock solid teachings of Jesus.
The thing is, from the outside looking in, most people would have drooled over Billy Ray’s situation. They would have hopped right into his shoes, not realizing that he would take it all back in a second.
That should be a lesson for all of us. It’s so easy to covet someone else’s situation. The little green-eyed monster of jealousy sinks his teeth into us, and we become dissatisfied.
The point is, we should not look at someone else as the standard. No one has the blueprint for our lives besides Jesus. We need to look at His words and do them. Then we will build on rock, not sand. Then our families will stand strong, even in the midst of great storms.
Then we can avoid wasting years of our life chasing worldly dreams, only to end up saying along with Billy Ray, “I’d erase it all in a second if I could.”
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2011 The Arrow’s Tip
To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here: http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one: douglas_apple@msn.com
(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
-vi-
