The Encourager
“Guard Your Children”
Guard Your Children
by Jeff Curtis
Pope John Paul II, said, “As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.” This is a practical point for all of us, as parents, to consider. We are the guardians of the next generation.
Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 6:4-9; “4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” God has intended for parents to always be busy teaching and protecting their children from this world.
We don’t need to be like Jacob, who seemed indifferent when Dinah was taken by Shechem (Genesis 34). We are to take an active role in training and teaching our children. Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Today, our children listen to music that may questionable at times, even the music we listen as their parents could be questionable at times. However, we shouldn’t think that just because our kids are listening to “contemporary Christian” music that they will not influenced in a negative way.
Many young people want to consider themselves to “in the know,” and up to date on what’s going on in the world. They like the progressive ideas in politics today, and still want to consider themselves to religious, and faithful (in their own way) to God.
There is a Grammy winning Christian singer, Kevin Max, who has stated recently that he is no longer evangelical. He voiced his support for groups that are anti-government, anti-police, etc. He says he is now called an “Exvangelical” and a follower of the ‘Universal Christ.”
What?
He recently said on a podcast, “We embrace the LGBTQ community fully, are thoroughly feminist, denounce the role of white supremacy in society in general, and white evangelicalism in particular.” I’m not sure I completely understand all that he said. I’ve never heard of “white evangelicalism.” But, to claim his support for homosexuality is in direct conflict with God’s Word. Homosexuality has always been condemned and rebuked in the Word of God. God has destroyed cities because of this belief. Sodom and Gomorrah, in Genesis 19. “as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” (Jude v.3).
As parents, we are obligated to protect our children. Sometimes, they are not going to like our objections to things such as the music they listen to, they may even resent our questioning of their choice of music. The alternative, is that you could help to persuade them to change some of their choices and help prevent them from being so heavily influenced by the world.
Who knows, they may live long enough to thank you for your love and concern for their soul.
