One of the most effective ways to get our kids to look critically and Christianly through eyes of faith at their rapidly changing culture is to help them understand and apply the truths of God’s Word. In fact, this ranks right up there as job number one as we take on our responsibility to nurture our children and teens in the faith. One particularly helpful practice is to sit together in church in order to listen to the Word of God preached in the sermon. The practice of taking notes is one we should both model and teach to our kids. Then, each and every week, use the drive home or a time together later in the day to ask a question or two of everyone in the family. Here are some basic questions to get you started. What’s one new thing you learned about Jesus or God? What was the big idea that the pastor was communicating? Was there anything you didn’t understand or found confusing? What does what we heard in the sermon mean for our lives? Do your kids a favor, and help them to listen, learn, and apply.

Here’s a warning to parents from Union University’s Phil Davignon. In a Touchstone article on increased secularization, he says we should be concerned about the influence of media content on our kids, but at the same time we let our kids watch all kinds of things online. He writes, “It is an open secret that the design for these apps relies on the same principles as casinos do. Psychologists suggest that using the language of addiction is no mere metaphor, since apps such as TikTok efficiently deliver a dopamine hit, leaving people craving more. Christian parents may prefer content-neutral social media to films with foul language, but doing so fails to recognize that form matters. Christians are people of the Word. To love God means to cultivate a mind that attends to God’s presence in the Word of Scripture and the Logos of Creation. The TikTok generation is losing the capability to attend to anything of substance, as their minds become accustomed to a steady stream of online diversions.”

When we can’t act responsibly, behaving ourselves in ways that don’t risk danger to others and ourselves, outside intervention is needed so that the most vulnerable are protected. For several years now we’ve been talking about the out-of-control idolatry of youth sports, a reality that puts incredible pressure on our kids, costs vast amounts of time and money, and can lead to all kinds physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual problems. While sports is a good thing when experienced as one part of a child’s balanced life, we’ve made them an ultimate thing, and it’s costing our kids, our families, and our culture dearly. Kids feel the anxiety from the pressure to perform, while parents allow themselves the anxiety of paying exorbitant amounts of money for kids to participate. Now Congress is intervening to stop what’s being labeled as a crisis in youth sports that is exacting great costs both now and in the future. Parents, let’s remember that the most important thing is pointing our kids to Jesus.

I just don’t know who or what to believe anymore! Have you ever found yourself thinking or saying this out loud regarding what you encounter or social media. With advances in AI generated content and the ways in which we as individual users can create content on social media, those of us who are concerned about the accuracy of what we see oftentimes leaves us scratching our heads while muttering, “Is that true?” The reality is that we are living in a world where the prevalence of falsehood is on the rise, as well as the chances for each of us to be scammed or duped. A new report from the Pew Research Center tells us that a fifth of U.S. adults now regularly get their news on TikTok, a figure which is up sharply since 2020. In fact, forty-three percent of adults under the age of thirty say they regularly get their news from TikTok, which is up from nine percent in 2020. While we can’t tell you where to go to find trusted truth online, we can tell you to beware, and to warn your kids to do the same.

We just celebrated Valentine’s Day, that holiday that’s traditionally filled with red hearts, cupid’s arrows, rose bouquets, and chocolates. Many of our younger kids had the opportunity to share those cute little Valentine’s Day cards with their classmates. I remember bringing home a bag filled with twenty to thirty cards every year when I was a kid. And while Valentine’s Day was all about love, I have to admit that my young mind really didn’t understand what romantic love actually was. How about taking some time this week to throw out these questions at the dinner table in order to give all your kids an opportunity to truly understand romantic love. How did God lead you to the person you married? What is one piece of marriage advice that you think it’s important for kids to hear? How does the Bible define love versus what we see in the movies? How does a married couple stay together through difficult times? And what does God want us to know about marriage?

I remember being a young kid and singing these words in church: "Are you weak and heavy-laden? Burdened with a load of care?" As parents, there have been times when all of us have had to honestly answer "Yes". At other times, the "Yes" comes from dear friends who are locked into periods of unimaginable burden-bearing. Difficulty is to be expected as we are all sinners living in a broken world. If you take the time to read Hebrews 12 you will find words on sonship and the Lord's discipline. God disciplines those He loves. We are reminded that while we may be feeling crushed by the weight of our present burdens, God is present and at work. Remember the words of Hebrews 12:11 - "For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." Parents, remember that while you are parenting your children, God is parenting and forming you, especially during the hard times.

In the past, you’ve heard me talk about the epidemic of body dysmorphia which is spreading like wildfire thanks to social media. Body dysmorphia is defined as a mental disorder marked by an overwhelming and all-consuming preoccupation with a perceived flaw in one’s appearance. One new subset is what’s called muscle dysmorphia, a belief that one’s body is too small, too skinny, and not muscular enough. This has also been called bigorexia, megarexia, and reverse anorexia. Mental health and medical experts are now warning that this is the latest eating disorder affecting our teens, as more and more teenagers, particularly our boys, are struggling with bigorexia. Much of this is being fueled by the presence of social media and the comparison it fosters, while promoting muscularity as a measure of one’s value. We must help our kids understand that their identity is not to be found in what they look like. Rather, it’s the value they already have in God’s eyes that counts.

The Genesis creation narrative tells us that after creating humankind both male and female in His own image, God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” This creation mandate reveals God’s intentions for His image-bearers. New research conducted by the Pew Research Center indicates that for today’s teenagers ages thirteen to seventeen, getting married and having kids is not a top priority. In fact, eighty-six percent of the respondents say that it’s extremely or very important for them to have a job or career they enjoy and which brings financial success when they reach adulthood. Only thirty-six percent said that they cared about getting married, and just thirty percent say it’s important to have children. With the cultural tide moving in this direction, perhaps we need to do a better job of teaching about God’s heart and design for the family, teaching them that having and raising children is a high privilege and high calling!