Disclaimer: I do not advocate the lifestyle portrayed in this movie or that you allow your children to view it without you having watched it first. And, if you do watch it after reading my review, you do so knowing that it contains vulgarity, drugs, alcohol, fighting and other sensitive subjects that most Christians avoid.

Do you ever get bored or don’t feel like doing anything else but watch a movie? I do. It seems that in the past two years we have more than made up for our TV time (We have never had cable in our home and when we did have TV, we only had about three stations), but with the advent of the Internet – YouTube and other movie sites, it has become pretty easy to access movies whenever we want.

Last night I was procrastinating (bad, bad, bad, I know) on a project that needed to be done by this morning, so what was I doing? Yes, looking for a movie to watch. The movie that caught my attention is called Homeless to Harvard; it’s a documentary style movie and was based on a true story.

I wouldn’t exactly call it a family-friendly movie because of the nature of the lifestyle and topics experienced in Liz Murray’s family. They were extremely poor, basically due to the parents’ addictions. However, contrary to what I have written concerning book reviews etc., we did let our children watch it after we had viewed it. I did fast forward through a sensitive part when Liz’s friend shared with Liz what her own father had done to her, starting at the age of seven. This is a sensitive topic and a new topic that our children have never heard of that I know of and one I didn’t want to discuss at this point in time.

There were no boy/girl relationships in this movie. It was about Liz’s life and her journey to a new beginning when all around her, hope was lost.

What we took away from the movie is that no matter how down and out you think you may be, there is always someone who is going through an even tougher time. We were encouraged by Liz’s determination and work ethic in school and in her job. Our children got to see a girl doing her school work and working at a job without an adult or older sibling urging her to do so.

It amazed our children that people really do live like Liz’s family. It also showed them how our choices – good and bad – affect not only our lives but the lives of those around us.

While the movie starts out very sad and depressing, by the end of the movie we were cheering for the main character, Liz Murray, who achieved her dreams and even honored her parents when most of the world would have written them off as undeserving of anything Liz had to offer them. She displayed Christian character while not claiming to be a Christian and that is an honorable thing because God blesses those who honor their parents.

I chose to share that I watched this movie because I know there are many hurting families out there and sometimes we all need a little shake now and again to realize how much we truly have to be thankful for; I know I needed it.

Disclaimer: I do not advocate the lifestyle portrayed in this movie or that you allow your children to view it without you having watched it first. And, if you do watch it after reading my review, you do so knowing that it contains vulgarity, drugs, alcohol, fighting and other sensitive subjects that most Christians avoid.