Slice of Laodicea

If you want a concise summary of just how bad things are morally in American families now, the header on a parenting blog post today should help. The headline reads, “Tell Your Teens–No Naked Cell Pics!”

Reading the piece this morning after it came by email, I was struck at how mundane it all is now. Just another parenting tip among many. Convince your teens that sending naked photos of themselves to peers is a bad idea. Why? The article says it’s illegal. Somebody else might see the photos besides your intended target, your cell phone could get lost and then even more might see the pictures, and so on and so forth. Never once was the term “wrong” used in the advice to parents. I was also struck at how parents are now reduced to begging their teens (mainly girls) not to send pornographic photos of themselves to males. Parents are encouraged to use pragmatic arguments that have nothing to do with morality and plain decency. This approach which will work about as well as parental advice against illegal underage drinking, sex and drug use.

Welcome to the world of American adolescence, where this kind of moral squalor is the constant influence on young people. This month, millions of American kids are going back to school. Constant moral filth makes up the climate even in elementary schools these days. You don’t have to wait for high school to experience it. As a mother of three young adults, I can tell you that many “Christian” high schools are little different. The evangelical church has so thoroughly embraced the world that the dress, speech and moral values of kids at Christian schools mirror that of the public schools. The only difference is that parents often delude themselves into thinking that their financial sacrifices for private Christian school will pay off in the character of their children. If isn’t always the fault of the schools themselves, many of which have dedicated Christian staff. The families are using these schools as a last ditch effort to save their kids which were tanking spiritually a long time before high school. As the rebels fill the hallways, any hope of a godly atmosphere is in vain.

On a brighter note, while in South Carolina, our children attended an unusual Christian school where I got to see what a powerful influence godly kids can have on others. The school sponsored a book fair and every last book was checked and approved by the school before it was offered to kids. The tables were filled with Christ-honoring material. Our fourth-grade son came home with his “wish list” for the books he’d like to get, and I met him after school to buy some of them. He grabbed one of the books and held it out. “My friend Ben says this is a great book. I want this one.” It was a missionary story of the founder of the China Inland Mission. I blessed in my heart the boy who had praised a book about a missionary to my young son. Ben doesn’t know that he had a good influence that day. Ben had been raised in a home where the material wasn’t Harry Potter or any number of the occult-themed books so popular in children’s literature. He was raised to believe that a story of a missionary was an excellent thing, and he passed that belief on to my son. It was one of many such instances that year.

I write this today to encourage Christian parents to do whatever is necessary to surround your children with Christ-honoring material. Lift high the cross in your home, and don’t let the world set the tone. The enemy has so gutted many homes of anything remotely resembling a godly atmosphere that countless young people from supposedly Christian homes are being destroyed. Uphold the Word of God and its authority in all things. The Word, more than anything else, is under attack today, and shockingly, even in churches and youth groups. We will all give an account as parents. It’s a sobering thought. The worldly parents today are reduced to begging their girls not to send out personal porn to others. Remember that tragic reality, and may the Lord help us as Christian parents to faithfully teach the fear and love of the Lord to our children.