Several times this week I became very frustrated with things my son was being exposed too. Twice this week our family has sat down to watch television and had to turn the programming off due to explicit sexual content. On Saturday, we went to see a high school play and I could not believe some of the language and sexual content that the play contained. It seems like society is bombarded by these images at every turn.
Recently while I was at a doctors appointment I took out my IPad and started to read a book that we downloaded so that Caleb could complete a book report for school. I was shocked to find that the book contained a lot of sexual situations. The assignment the teacher gave was to read any book that contained high school characters in a school setting. Caleb did several online searches and located a list of books that satisfied the requirements set forth by the teacher. Prior to downloading the book I read several reviews of the book. I also read the description of the book and no where did I find a statement that said, “this book may not be suitable for …” I thought that I had done a good job of previewing the book for the report, but I failed. I needed to do more research and fact finding before allowing him to download the book. We were in a hurry and in a time crunch, and I did not pay enough attention to the information that was available to me. The lesson I learned is that I must be diligent with censoring what I allow my children to be exposed to at all times, even when I am busy.
It amazes me that many parents are not paying attention to the media that they are allowing their kids to access. I know that I can not shield my children from all of the negative influences in this world. However, it is my job as a parent to do the best that I can to provide a Christian environment for my children. We as parents need to be more diligent in censoring television, movies, music, video games and print materials. I know that with love and guidance my children will grow up to be the children of God that they are meant to be.
Verse: Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6).