Biblical principles that we would do well to teach at the earliest stages

By: American Decency Staff

Young people are precious, impressionable and vulnerable.  They are beginning to learn and observe in the earliest of days of their infancy.  They hear.  They see.  They touch and feel.  All around them are varieties of types of stimulation.

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There are several Biblical principles that we would do well to teach at the earliest stages to our children and grandchildren.  What we watch and listen to DOES impact.

1.  I will place no wicked thing before mine eyes.  Psalm 101:3a.  This is a Biblical truth for people of all ages.   A household that is television-centered can’t possibly be abiding by this principle.  If our children are being exposed to soap operas, a steady flow of advertisements, talk shows, sitcoms, dramas, etc.., your loved ones  are being exposed to images and themes that are Godless and influential.

Aggressively and caringly regulating your television is of vital importance.  Even better is not having television in your household because guarding, overseeing and regulating a television is very difficult to do.  In a household where mother and father are not in agreement with Christian principles of parenting and/or both are at work and kids are home alone watching television without guidance, it can be especially hard to protect the eys of our children.

2.  When viewing television or a DVD together, know what it is that you are viewing.   It isn’t a good thing to be surprised by erotic, profane and/or violent images or themes.  Children are impressionable.

3.  Model before your children and teens behaviors, attitudes, and convictions that send a  clear message to your offspring that you, too, exercise discernment in what you view and are entertained by.

4.  “Pursue holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.”  [Hebrews 12:14]  If this isn’t a concern or conviction of yours, examine your own heart.  This is a central part of the Christian faith.

5. To add balance to this vitally important area of concern is, that  as important as it is to have standards of “don’t do this and this and this,” is the explanation of why you’re saying don’t.     Teaching to do those things that please God and show that we are His children.  All of us need to learn to DISCERN. Test all things.  Hold fast what is good. Abstain from all forms of evil.  [I Thessalonians 5:21].    It is easier to memorize a scripture than it is to teach discernment.   At the same time it doesn’t mean that you choose to watch ungodly things and justify it by then pointing out those things that are ungodly. 

6.   Ultimately, our children and grandchildren need to be able to stand on their own – to fend for themselves and to stand on God’s standards for themselves.    Deuteronomy 6 speaks of our need to first know Christ ourselves.  And then we are to be making disciples of our children day by day – throughout the day.  Living a Christian life – taking our marching orders from Christ daily.  Walking in the light.  Repenting of our sins as needed.  Asking for God’s help and guidance.

Deuteronomy 6:  “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.    You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.   You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

7.  Godward Focus – taken from Shepherding Through the Stages of Childhood by Ted Tripp “Notice that obedience is a response to God.  Children must learn that they have been made for God.  They have a duty to Him.  He has the right to rule them.  They owe Him obedience.  

Young children will never submit to you without understanding this truth.  They will never see living in terms of bringing glory to God.  They will be self-absorbed – the prime objects of worship in their own world.

Submission to earthly authority is a specific application of being a creature under God’s authority.  Submission to God’s authority may seem distant and theoretical.  Mom and Dad, however, are present.  Obedience to God is reflected in a child’s growing understanding of obedience to parents.  … “

This is significant.   This book referenced  – “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” is an apt title for the discussion of this short treatise. If we as parents have our child’s heart, we will likely have their honoring and obedience, and more importantly will be turning their hearts toward loving, honoring, and obeying God.

8.  These are difficult days.  Pornography, obscenity, and indecency are rampant  and filling our airwaves, television, computer screens, cell phones, radios, et al.  

What has the power to keep a person of any age from viewing, listening to, and being engaged with godless entertainment?     With some exceptions, the answer is love and regard for Jesus Christ, and the Word of God.

9.  However, all around us people are falling and have fallen morally and spiritually: pastors, police officers, teachers, politicians – from senators to presidents,  high ranking military officials, judges, prosecutors, school and university leaders, doctors, etc..  

I believe there is great faltering because the concern of guarding your heart, mind and soul is not held high as precious and imperative.  So many have not had modeled for them godly examples and have little to no regard for God their Creator.

“I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.”  Job 31:1

Matthew Henry comments:  The lusts of the flesh, and the love of the world, are two fatal rocks on which multitudes split; against these Job protests he was always careful to stand upon his guard. God takes more exact notice of us than we do of ourselves; let us therefore walk circumspectly.   …  Without strict honestly and faithfulness in all our dealings, we can have no good evidence of true godliness. Yet how many [people] are unable to abide this touchstone!

Barnes Note on the Bible:

I made a covenant with mine eyes – The first virtue of his private life to which Job refers is chastity. Such was his sense of the importance of this, and of the danger to which man was exposed, that he had solemnly resolved not to think upon a young female. The phrase here, “I made a covenant with mine eyes,” is poetical, meaning that he solemnly resolved. A covenant is of a sacred and binding nature; and the strength of his resolution was as great as if he had made a solemn compact.  By the language (in the Greek), Job means that he had resolved, in the most solemn manner, that he would not allow his eyes or thoughts to endanger him by improperly contemplating a woman.

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