Archive for March 23rd, 2009

School Mad Lib

There are times in this world when I see things and I just wonder what in the world are we thinking.  We have come so far as a society, in good ways and bad ways.  But some things are just so blatantly obvious that we should be able to look at it and go; “You know that really isn’t a good idea”.

There are many studies and surveys that show that sex between students while in school is increasing and that the age is getting younger and younger all the time.  And so many are just shocked at this and wonder how did we get to this point.  Well, let me give you a small example and a suggestion as how we could possibly be contributing to the cause of these activities.   The image that I have included in this post was an exercise that my forth grader (sounds like an appropriate age until you say her age…she is 9!) was asked to do during school as a English activity.  This is a mad lib that they then read a story to inserting whatever they put there, I am sure that you all remember mad libs.  The part that I don’t know but I am going to find out is what was the story? 

Now, luckily because we are very active in our child’s life and have already talked with her and have set her focus and expectations about school and dating she was not even fazed by this exercise.  But what is this teaching our kids about  the focus and objective of school?  If we begin to indoctrinate our children this young with the concept of dating and the need to be attached in this way to a child of the opposite sex there should be no surprise that they are having sex at 12 years old.  Lets face it, the point of dating is to find a spouse, someone that we can spend the rest of our lives with and unite with.  Why do we want our elementary age students focusing on this?

The last part to this is not what we as parents or adults think but what God thinks about it.  We know specifically about sex that it was intended by God to be between a man and a woman after they were married and it was an act of sealing by blood this covenant that the made with God. Scripture tells us:

Genesis 2:20-24 (NIV)
{20} So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. {21} So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. {22} Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. {23} The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman, ‘ for she was taken out of man.” {24} For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

The word for ‘united’ (NIV) or ‘cleave’ (KJV) is the Hebrew ‘debaq’ meaning  to impinge, i.e. cling or adhere; fig. to catch by pursuit:–abide, fast, cleave (fast together), follow close (hard, after), be joined (together), keep (fast), overtake, pursue hard, stick, take.  So we see that God takes sex very seriously and so should we.  We should as parents instruct our children on God’s thoughts and not let others take the reigns and control how and when our children think that this act is OK.  We must understand that a lot of parents do not talk to their kids about this and so if you don’t your children are going to get the wrong information and be very confused.

And we must also remember that scripture tells us to cause a child to stumble is taken very serious by God.  In Matthew 18 Jesus tells us:

⁵“And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. ⁶But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

We must as parents and as a society consider the things that we do and consider the consequences of those actions on the children.  But more importantly we as Christ followers need to consider the environments that our children are in and also teach our children God’s word so that they can refute evil with truth.  But here is the kicker for us as parents…WE CAN NOT IMPART WHAT WE DON”T HAVE!!  So your asking well what does that mean?  Well that means if you don’t know the truth you can not teach it to your kids!  Parents you must read your Bible daily and understand it’s truths so that you can teach your children God’s ways.  Take time and talk with your kids about what is going on around them and teach them how God sees it!!

God Bless ~ Tyler