We surely didn’t always get it right, but we learned a lot along the way. This book is all about bringing up children of faith in a culture of relativism. It’s about helping moms and dads get out of rhythm with the world’s parenting philosophies and back in step with God. It speaks about discipline, developing a work ethic, minding the media and protecting purity. It’s an easy read, but we think it can make an impact for good in your family. We pray it can help your children reach heaven. Here’s an excerpt:
If we as Christian parents will take the time to think for a moment about the window through which we often allow our children to gaze, we surely will draw the shades. If my children were one day looking out my bay window into my front yard and discovered that in the yard across the street two unmarried people were passionately engaged in fornication, I would draw the shades. If my children were looking out and witnessing a stabbing in the street I would close the curtains and call 911. If on a spring day they overheard the shouting of obscenities through an open window I would surely close it. But often in our living rooms, the window is up, the shades are up and the curtains are open. The biggest difference I can see is that they are not watching from across the street or from the inside out. They are watching from the inside in. They can hear and see everything. The pollution of this world has made its way into the approved setting of our living rooms.
Through this window, the average high school senior has seen eighteen thousand murders. Through this window he has witnessed the abuse of alcohol in an acceptable setting tens of thousands of times. He has heard profanities and obscenities when they were shouted and when they were whispered. He has seen the values and the person of his God denigrated and reviled hundreds of times. He has relaxed beside the window for so long that he is no longer shocked at what he sees on the other side.
Dear Christian parents, we cannot afford to allow our children to be average television viewers. Our children need to know that any show that contains profane or obscene language will be immediately turned off. They need to know that we will not watch explicit sexual behavior or blasphemy against our God. In practical terms this means that we watch very little current TV. Almost without exception the shows produced today are saturated with such behavior. Since our television goes off or we switch the channel when such occurs, our family has learned not even to attempt to watch anything currently produced. Our viewing is generally either classic reruns, old movies or educational.
I realize that these viewing limitations will seem radical to families that are a part of a society that has elevated television to be its number one pastime. In I Peter 4:3, several sins are listed. Peter characterizes these sins as the will of the Gentiles. It occurs to me that in America today we could substitute the words “entertainment industry” for the word “Gentiles.” Such sin is the will of the entertainment industry! The next verses have been a powerful influence on my thinking when I begin to wonder if we are being radical with reference to our family entertainment choices.
“Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.”
Yes. Some will think it strange. Some may speak evil of you. But certainly what Hollywood produces today is filled with an excess of riot. We as Christians must commit not to run with them for we will surely give an account to Him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead.
