“as he thinketh, so he is” (Prov. 23:7) was one of the first verses that I started teaching the boys when they were little. Our concept motto was "garbage in... garbage out"! As silly as it sounds, our first "garbage in... garbage out" decision came over a toddler television show where the child was whiny and sometimes disrespectful to his parents. We limited their television time so I didn't want them watching that plus I didn't want my boys to start mocking that behavior.
There are so many verses in the Bible regarding all the things which are part of the Harry Potter books that it didn't take long to explain to them. Those who practice witchcraft (sorcery) will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:20-21) and “When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire [an ancient occult practice], or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination [detestable] to the LORD…”-Deuteronomy 18:9-12a
Now, of course, we have advanced to video games. Big Guy is a teen and developed a love of video games. We have been training him to read the reviews so he can be active in picking his games. Recently he came to me with a video game review. Among the review statements were the facts that characters danced around a stripper pole, grotesque violence, explicit horror and mutilation. He couldn't believe it only received a "M" rating. Even more he couldn't believe his friends that were allowed to play it!
Like I said, we have received so much antagonism for our stance. People say "it's only a game!" or "I am just so glad my child will read they can read anything they want."
Ephesians 6:12 says "we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
Let me make this clear. Every parent has to make decisions for their own children. I am not saying that the decisions I have made for my boys are the ones that you should make for your children. Not. at. all.
What I am saying is that sometimes when I am reading the Bible and his explicit commands regarding how to live our life as Christians and how to train up our children, how must He feel about the garbage we are allowing in to our children's lives?
The older the boys get the more they are exposed to the world around them and more we are aware of the Bible's command to "Avoid every kind of evil." 1 Thessalonians 5:22
Being a parent is not easy, but nothing worth doing ever is.
4 comments:
I so appreciate your boys' hearts. I have 2 daughters that we have trained up very similar to you. When they were little and stayed at Grandma's, Grandma was so impressed when they said that they couldn't watch certain shows. They have been at parties where they have left the room when inappropriate movies were one. Our oldest is in college and has thanked us for the way we raised her after living in a dorm this year!
I think no matter what your beliefs are, it's important to make sure your children are making informed decisions for themselves. That they aren't just blindly following the crowd without thought to consequences or appearances. And it's also important (to me) that my kids learn to respect that other people have different values than we do, and we can only live in the way we feel we are called to live, and respect the way the other people in our lives have been called (and of course pray for them).
Wow, I have never really thought about the Harry Potter books that way before (I have never read them and only just a few of my friends have)!
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