Deborah Drapper

Speaking of a passion for the lost, eyes on Heaven, etc. I met this young lady yesterday via the internet. She inspires me.

Thanks, Alex & Brett, for passing this on.

After you watch her six part story, I’d like to discuss some things with you. (Double click on the video to find the other five parts.)…

For one thing, don’t you find it interesting that the whole premise of the filmers was that this poor little Christian girl was growing up so deprived of “normal”: partying, drinking, sex, filling her mind with pop culture, etc.? What snippets I see of the other side, as I’m sure goes through Deborah’s mind as she encounters “the outside world”, it all just looks so pathetically sad & lonely! When you’ve grown up with all your emotional, spiritual, & physical needs met by a loving family & wonderful God, you see the emptiness of those other poor girls half dressed & drunk & just feel sad for them. They obviously don’t know real love, joy, peace, etc. & how could they? Those things come from the Holy Spirit. If you don’t have Him in your live, you’re left to wallow in filth trying to imitate those things & it ends up trashing your life. (The Liar comes to kill & steal & destroy.) Some commenters (on you tube) sounded like they would love to see Deborah in a few years when she heads out to college & gets drunk, shacks up, etc. First of all, nice attitude! They are wishing a beautiful girl to trash her life just because everyone they know does. Nice. But secondly, I would be willing to bet she won’t do those things. She’s a sinner, & we all make mistakes. But she’s pretty confident in who she is & what she believes; if you’ll notice, more so than any of the other people around her! Teens do not have to go through a rebellious stage! They don’t! My prayer for our children is that they too, would have this confident assurance of their Father’s love, not only accepting themselves, but seeing themselves as a wonderfully loved special creation of a loving God Who has a purpose for their lives. I pray they get to know themselves, their gifts, talents, weaknesses, early so that they can head that direction God has for their lives as soon as possible & find that joy & fulfillment in doing what God has created them to do without wasted years of stupid living to look back & be embarrassed about. I would be grieved to see them wallow in sin for years, wasting their youthful passion & zeal. It would grieve me about as much as anything would, honestly.

Two ironic things: Didn’t you think it funny they started out asking Deborah how she copes with things being “so noisy” at home, yet they thought she’d be better off experiencing the party world where the noise is so intense you can’t think? I don’t think the film makers caught the funny there, but I sure did. Also, isn’t it funny how that one lady coming out of the puppet show thought it was so terrible the family was so “in your face” about creation? Now, I would venture to bet that ironically, if the show had been in your face about saving the environment, she wouldn’t have been offended. She just didn’t want to be told she was created & there’s a God out there Who loves her but not her sin. She doesn’t want her or her child to be exposed to being told any rules (aka ten commandments) even if that keeps her out of danger!

I read through some of the comments on youtube & many of them alluded to Deborah being a “sad child”. I think they saw her sad because the film showed her so often in those sad places. Her heart breaks when she sees people throwing away their lives & floundering. I understand. She challenges me & inspires me afresh there. I used to have more of a heart like that, but over the years I’ve become calloused. It is easy for me to get hard-hearted toward people in my own culture who have been in such a time and place as America & still haven’t availed themselves of all there is out there at their fingertips! Flip through the TV channels, people! Or the radio dial, or the local library for some great books, or walk in any number of the churches around you, or surf the net for crying out loud. Between Focus on the Family, films like Fireproof & the Passion, etc. you’d think everyone would’ve stumbled across the Gospel by now, wouldn’t you? But that’s not the right attitude to have. I need more compassion for the lost. So many hurting people, that’s how Jesus saw them. And that’s how I feel when I have gotten to know their stories. I was watching Jail last night. First time I’ve watched TV in a long, long time & I now remember why. The whole show was about police locking down these drugged out drunks. Pathetic. But each of those poor souls is so obviously trapped in sin. They desperately need the Lord! They are ruining their lives & it is just really, really sad. It shouldn’t have to be that obvious, though, for me to be broken hearted – have Christ’s compassion for them.

God bless the Drapper family! It was refreshing to see a real Christian family & real teen girl who loves her Lord on TV. She also started a blog here. If you want to contact her for encouragement or discussion, I’m sure she would appreciate the encouraging words from brothers & sisters around the world.