Here\u2019s a quick quiz for you: The strongest man in\u00a0the Bible was\u2026Samson. The wisest man in the Bible\u00a0was\u2026Solomon. The one in the Bible called \u201ca man after\u00a0God\u2019s own heart\u201dwas\u2026David. Here\u2019s the quiz: What\u00a0did all these men of God have in common? All of them\u2014\u00a0the strongest man in the Bible, the smartest man in the\u00a0Bible, and arguably the most godly man in the Bible\u2014\u00a0struggled with sexual temptation and lost.<\/p>\n
I am the father of four boys. Rearing four growing\u00a0boys has its unique challenges. The house is never short\u00a0of things like body noises, sports talk, strange smells,\u00a0their buddies, and other \u201cboy\u201d things. One of the things\u00a0my wife and I have learned about rearing children is that\u00a0we must be proactive in teaching them to be different\u00a0from the world around them. Our goal is simple: to rear\u00a0godly boys who don\u2019t fall to sexual temptation.<\/p>\n
Parenting has never been easy, but in today\u2019s times\u00a0and in today\u2019s society it can be extra tough. The struggle\u00a0with parenting today seems to be that we teach our\u00a0children one thing, and then society, and often their peers,\u00a0teach them the exact opposite. It\u2019s pretty obvious that\u00a0we live in a time now where children are bombarded from\u00a0a young age with an over-sexualized society. Sex sells.\u00a0Advertisers, movies, magazines, music, websites, and\u00a0other things dish it out in large amounts.<\/p>\n
Here are some shocking examples of how our culture\u00a0has become obsessed with sex.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The pornography industry is an annual $57\u00a0billion worldwide business.<\/p>\n
\u2013 That\u2019s larger revenue than all the combined\u00a0revenues of all the professional football,\u00a0baseball and basketball franchises.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The U.S. pornography revenue exceeds\u00a0the combined revenues of ABC, CBS,\u00a0FOX and NBC.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Internet Porn Statistics<\/p>\n
\u2013 Pornographic websites \u2013 4.2 million\u00a0(12% of total websites)<\/p>\n
\u2013 Pornographic pages accessed \u2013372 million daily<\/p>\n
\u2013 Pornographic search engine requests \u2013\u00a068 million (25% of total search engine<\/p>\n
requests)<\/p>\n
\u2013 Daily pornographic emails \u2013 2.5 billion (8%\u00a0of total emails) Average daily pornographic\u00a0emails\/user \u2013 4.5 per Internet user<\/p>\n
\u2013 Monthly pornographic downloads (Peer-to-peer) \u2013 1.5 billion (35% of all downloads)\u00a0worldwide visitors to pornographic web\u00a0sites \u2013 72 million annually<\/p>\n
\u2022 Children\u2019s Exposure to Pornography<\/p>\n
\u2013 Average age of first Internet exposure\u00a0to pornography \u2013 11 years old<\/p>\n
\u2013 Largest consumer of Internet pornography \u2013\u00a012-17 age group<\/p>\n
(Source: http:\/\/xxxchurch.com,\u00a0http:\/\/www.pureintimacy.org)<\/p>\n
As parents we must realize that we cannot sit back on our hands and do nothing.We must be proactive in\u00a0teaching and training our children what\u2019s right and wrong in our over-sexed society.With so many negative things\u00a0battling for our children\u2019s lives these days, our job is to rear our children in the world without them becoming part\u00a0of the world. I\u2019m not against television, the Internet, or video games as long as my children follow the rules that\u00a0we\u2019ve set for them. There are many things that are going to influence our children, but as parents we should be\u00a0the number one influence in our children\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n
So what can we do as parents to protect them in a time when they are daily bombarded by sexual themes?\u00a0Here are some ideas\u2026<\/p>\n
Communicate.<\/strong> Talk with your children on a regular basis about what\u2019s wrong and right. Explain what you\u00a0expect from them when something comes on television that\u2019s inappropriate. Let them know there are certain shows,\u00a0games, music, and movies that are not allowed in the house. As a parent, it\u2019s your job to talk to your children\u00a0about sex. If you\u2019re waiting until your children are in junior high to talk to them about sex, you\u2019re waiting too late.<\/p>\n Their peers and society are already teaching them things at a younger age. As parents, it\u2019s our job to \u201cset the\u00a0record straight\u201d on matters of sexuality.We need to teach that God created sex as a beautiful thing between husbands\u00a0and wives. Sex is God\u2019s gift to married people, but anything outside of that is wrong.<\/p>\n Protect.<\/strong> Take steps to protect your family\u2019s time on the computer. Consider an Internet filter. Use parental\u00a0controls to limit things that are seen and how often the computer is used. Keep the family computer in an open\u00a0room where it can be supervised and viewed by all. There is less temptation to view things you shouldn\u2019t when\u00a0you\u2019re sitting out in the middle of a room instead of behind closed doors. One rule of the computer in our home\u00a0has always been that no one is allowed to erase the history (a record that\u2019s stored on the computer) that tells\u00a0what sites have been visited and what has been searched. There has been accountability in knowing that I\u2019m\u00a0going to regularly check my children\u2019s computer history. I\u2019ve also encouraged my children and wife to check the\u00a0history on the sites that I\u2019ve viewed.<\/p>\n Control.<\/strong> It\u2019s essential that we control what our children see in our house. Our four boys have grown up in a\u00a0home where MTV and other channels were blocked so no one could watch them.We started early not allowing\u00a0these things in our home. To this point, not once have we ever had our children ask us on why. They\u2019ve simply\u00a0understood the rules when we\u2019ve explained how we can be tempted by things we see. We\u2019ve had rules in our\u00a0family that we didn\u2019t watch R-rated movies (movies should be reviewed for inappropriate content at Kids in Mind,\u00a0screenit.com). This wasn\u2019t a rule just for kids but for everyone in the house. Placing rules on your children that\u00a0you refuse to follow is a double standard and hypocritical.<\/p>\n Model.<\/strong> There is not a greater teacher in your home than your actions. It\u2019s your job to model both your values\u00a0and your integrity. What your children see you do, they will do also. If you try to teach them about honesty\u00a0yet tell little white lies yourself, your children will see your inconsistencies and you\u2019ll lose your ability to influence\u00a0them. It\u2019s not just with reference to honesty, but also with every area of your life. How could King David go talk\u00a0to his son Amnon about sexual purity when he himself had failed miserably? (2 Samuel 11, 2 Samuel 13). Make\u00a0sure you practice what you preach.<\/p>\n Train.<\/strong> Growing up, we never left for school without my mom reading us a Bible story. Spiritual training was\u00a0a deliberate part of my parents\u2019 plan to rear children. Personally, I wish as parents we\u2019d see that spiritual training\u00a0is not optional but essential. Families today don\u2019t need a small dose of God; they need a large dose of God.\u00a0Children need spiritual training. Talk about God in your home, read the Bible together, attend church together, and\u00a0let them see that God is important to you and a part of your life. Come to think of it, the gift of God is not just a\u00a0gift that lasts a lifetime, but it\u2019s a gift that lasts an eternity!<\/p>\n Let me close with this: Do you remember Noah? There are many who think Noah was a lousy preacher.\u00a0For over 100 years while he built the ark, he preached to the lost. When he was done preaching and the\u00a0invitation was given, no one but his family got on the ark with him. When I hear that account, I see Noah as a\u00a0great success, and I pray I will be as successful a preacher as he was. For when that great day comes and God\u00a0calls us all home, if the only people I\u2019ve brought with me to Heaven is my family\u2026then I\u2019ve been tremendously\u00a0successful.<\/p>\n By Trey Morgan<\/strong><\/p>\n This article first appeared in\u00a0<\/em>Think magazine.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here\u2019s a quick quiz for you: The strongest man in\u00a0the Bible was\u2026Samson. The wisest man in the Bible\u00a0was\u2026Solomon. The one in the Bible called \u201ca man after\u00a0God\u2019s own heart\u201dwas\u2026David. Here\u2019s the quiz: What\u00a0did all these men of God have in common? All of them\u2014\u00a0the strongest man in the Bible, the smartest man in the\u00a0Bible, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,46,59,35,148,66],"tags":[147,58,204,573,150,248],"class_list":["post-2592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-children","category-christian-living","category-culture","category-entertainment","category-think-excerpts","tag-addiction","tag-children","tag-guest","tag-parenting","tag-pornography","tag-sex","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n