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Change comes from the Lord

Tales from the Front Pew

Can a person actually lose brain cells from watching really bad TV? If the answer’s “yes,” I’m in big trouble.

It started the other day when I decided to relax in my recliner with a hot cup of tea and a little television.

After flipping through the channels, I ended up with one of those reality shows that’s a lot like a horrible car wreck on the side of the road. You don’t want to look, but you just can’t help yourself.

The show is called “Mama June … From Not to Hot.”

To give you a little background — hey, why should I suffer alone? — it’s a sort of spin-off from another TV show called “Toddlers & Tiaras,” which is all about child beauty pageants.

In fact, Mama June is the mother of one of the past contestants, a little girl named Alana, also known as Honey Boo Boo.

The mother/daughter combo initially caught the public eye by way of their overall uniqueness.

Let’s just say that Honey Boo Boo was not the stereotypical beauty pageant contestant. Short, chubby and spunky with a strong southern accent, she seemed more at home at a tractor pull than a stage.

Honey’s downhome charm eventually led to her own reality show, which, in turn, spun off spin-off number two: a show called “Mama June … From Not to Hot.” As you might surmise from the title, the theme involves Mama June’s transition from “not terribly attractive” to “cuter than a possum ploppin’ in a posy patch.” I’m paraphrasing, but I reckon y’all get the idea.

Rome was not built in a day, and neither was Mama June – rebuilt, that is.

After months of dieting, working with a personal trainer and nutritionist, stomach stapling, bust enhancement, hair bleaching and excess skin removal, our heroine had, indeed, made quite a transformation, at least on the outside.

I say “on the outside” because, sadly, Mama June still approaches people, situations and life in general from her pre-hot perspective.

Her relationship with her other daughter Pumpkin is tumultuous, especially since the teenager is now expecting a child of her own with her boyfriend Leroy or Goober or whatever.

Likewise, all is not sunshine and roses between Mama June and her ex-husband Sugar Bear (yep, that’s the man’s name) since he became betrothed to another woman whose moniker blessedly escapes me at the moment.

Coming in at about 450 pounds, she’s the spitting image of pre-hot June, which prompted the newly-svelte lady to remark, “I’m not surprised. Sugar Bear likes him some big gals.”

As you might expect, there’s also more than a little contention between the two women, particularly in regard to Honey Boo Boo, who seems happy to play mom against stepmom, especially when it comes to things like five pieces of chocolate fudge brownie cake.

Mama June is different on the outside, but the really important part, what’s inside, hasn’t changed.

We can be that way, too. No matter how often we attend Sunday School, take up pew space or carry around a Bible, nothing will really change until we give our lives to the Lord.

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