Youth Culture Today with Walt Mueller

Earlier this year I ran across an opinion piece written in The Sydney Australia Morning Herald by author and mother of three, Kerri Sackville. The title of the piece was quite blunt, but it does capture our need to rethink how we as parents are using social media. Sackville's title reads, “Nobody wants to read those posts about how brilliant your kids are.” Sackville goes on to remind us that nobody likes to read a boast. Still, we are living on a social media landscape where we are prone to use pictures and text to boast about how smart and talented our kids are, especially when it comes to athletics, academics, and extracurricular activities. Christian parents are by no means immune to this, and I've even seen some boast about their evidences of their kids' faith. Parents, teach your kids to let their actions speak for themselves as they pursue excellence. And, with the Apostle Paul in second Corinthians ten seventeen, we all must say, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 

For the last twenty or so years, educators, parents, and researchers have lamented what they believe is a decline in reading for pleasure among adults. The concern is that the increase in daily screen time, including time with TVs, computers, and smartphones, would cut away at the practice of reading. A new study published in iScience found that leisure reading, also known as reading for pleasure or fun, had declined by forty percent from 2003 to 2023. More specifically, the percentage of people who daily read for pleasure dropped from twenty-eight percent, to sixteen percent. We can assume that adults who are not readers will mostly raise kids who aren't readers. We applaud the growing movement to get our kids reading more, which requires that we adults be reading more as well. Reading improves literacy skills and prevents cognitive decline. For the Christian, reading the Bible, both alone and together, feeds our spiritual growth. Is your family reading?

Parents, the world is full of distractions for our teens, and some can be more dangerous than they appear. While we teach them values rooted in faith, we must also be aware of the modern cultural challenges they face. One of those is gambling. Aggressive and pervasive marketing for online platforms along with social media and peer pressure are making it easier for young people to be drawn into sports betting and gaming with real money. This can quickly spiral into addiction, leading to financial hardship and compromising the integrity we strive to instill. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 13:5, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have.” Let's have open, honest conversations with our teens about the financial, addictive, and moral risks of gambling, grounded in the wisdom of biblical truth and a desire to be obedient followers of Jesus Christ. Remind them that true contentment isn't found in placing bets, but in the blessings God has already provided.

With artificial intelligence spreading like wildfire through the digital landscape and into the lives of our kids, we would be mindful to tread carefully and set limits knowing that jumping into new technologies is sure to bring a mix of the good and the bad. In a recent article in First Things magazine, Mary Harrington offers these words: “The end of print culture is already upon us. With it's end, we are already witnessing the disintegration of modernity's load-bearing foundations, including the valorization of facts and objectivity, and a conception of the individual subject as a universal model of human personhood. This reality-picture, which crystallized in the seventeenth century, is already well on its way to dissolution in the solvent bath of digital media, a process radically accelerated by the spread of AI.” Parents, our high calling and privilege is to train our children up in the nurture of the Lord. Don't let cultural change drive your kids away from experiencing their full humanity as a follower of Jesus Christ!

In a recent edition of the Kids Today online newsletter, correspondent Anna North asked, “What do we lose when teens don't babysit?” In her article, North tells us how the teenage baby-sitting culture has changed over the years, with fewer and fewer teens actually baby-sitting, and fewer and fewer parents hiring teen baby-sitters. With a smaller amount of teens engaging in this once widespread rite of passage, North argues that kids are missing out on a formative experience that can build a teenager's confidence level as they learn to exercise responsibility. Kids who babysit others are given the opportunity to learn social skills, they learn to deal with problems, and they develop in their critical-thinking abilities. In a day-and-age when kids are tethered to their phones, and phones are even used as baby-sitters, why not encourage your kids to take a baby-sitting course and take on the baby-sitting responsibility. This is one more way to nurture our kids into a healthy adulthood. 

Because I was a typical kid who was doing typical mischievous things in my neighborhood, one of our regular childhood after-dark activities was to play “ring and run.” You may have called that “ding-dong ditch” where you grew up. You ring a random doorbell then run and hide, leaving the homeowner befuddled as they look around to figure out who was at the door. Of course, this was long before the advent of the video doorbell. But even in this video doorbell world, a viral TikTok trend has kids engaging in a new and dangerous version of the prank, this time known as the “Door Kick Challenge” or the “Door Knock Challenge.” Because it is a trend marked by aggressiveness and oftentimes property damage, Police have been warning parents of the legal ramifications. In addition, there are concerns that residents might take violent action against what they perceive to be an intruder. Parents, warn your kids are the dangers, risks, and potential fallout of this foolish viral trend.

What would you do if you were running the last cross-country race of your high school career and that race was the state championship meet? Now I'm not a cross-country runner, but I imagine that I would be racing to not only win, but to do the best I had ever done. I recently ran across the story of Kaylee Montgomery, a high school senior who set out to beat her personal best in the Arkansas state championship cross-country race. Just forty yards from the finish line, Kaylee came up on a rival runner, who had collapsed from exhaustion. Kaylee stopped, helped Julia Worthington up, and supported her body as they moved together slowly to the finish line, while all the other runners passed. When interviewed, Kaylee said that she was encouraging Julia, praying that the Lord would give Julia strength to finish. In a world where winning is increasingly seen as everything, we applaud this kind of Christ-like service from a teen. Let's encourage our kids to do the same.

I recently watched a video posted by the owners of a female black labrador retriever who they took to an outdoor restaurant where they were grabbling a meal. The video showed the dog choosing to sit on a separate couch, all the way at the end, facing the opposite direction from it's owners while acting like she didn't want to have anything to do with them. The owners posted, “Our moody teenager who sat herself as far away as she possibly could from her parents. The nerve of this girl.” I chuckled a bit as we all remember our own teenage years and our desire, from time to time to NOT be seen with our parents. It's known as individuation, which is a normal developmental process where our kids want to develop their own sense of self and independence from their parents. But parents, realize this, they are still watching you. Your presence and influence are more important than ever, as you model and teach what it means to live as a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. 

As debates continue to rage regarding the effects of smartphones on the physical, spiritual, emotional, relational, and cognitive health of our kids, we need to exercise caution. One caution is this: Don't put a smartphone in the hands of a young child. In fact, we need to be cautious about doing the same with our older kids, with many experts saying that we should wait to do so until the age of sixteen at the earliest. Listen to this first-person testimony from Matthew Gasda that was published in a Brooklyn-based underground magazine: “I'm aware that my flip phone is holding the line for me. That if I bought a new iPhone, I would spiral into levels of depravity and stupidity, hitherto unknown, in that over time, I would lose even the ability to be aware of this, and that is really the danger of the smartphone. You stop being aware of what you could have been. You lose the mythic hope of being a fully-fledged human being, and you start to crave submission to the digital Oversoul.” 

A recent survey by Wired Research, asked one thousand parents of kids ages fourteen to eighteen if they thought their children were prepared to manage their finances in adulthood. The survey found that only eight percent of the parents surveyed believe their teenagers are “extremely prepared” to handle their finances in adulthood. What's interesting is that this is a ten percent drop from last year, when eighteen percent of the parents reported the same. This declining confidence reminds us that as Christian parents, we need to go out of our way to teach our kids biblical principles of good financial stewardship, to teach them about saving, to teach them about tithing, and to teach them to recognize and push back on the constant flow of marketing messages seducing them to spend, spend, and spend. First Timothy six ten tells us that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

According to the Aspen Institute, the youth sports industry here in the United States is a forty billion dollar a year business. About sixty million kids are playing youth sports, with the average family spending just over a thousand dollars a year on a child's primary sport, which is a forty six percent increase since twenty-nineteen. Sadly many parents are pushing their kids to achieve in sports as a way of addressing their own unfulfilled dreams, and to live vicariously through their kids. Twenty percent of sports parents believe their child could play a Division One sport, and ten percent hold on to the unrealistic dream that their child could go professional. But the reality is quite different. For example, only one in six hundred and ten high school baseball players will get drafted by a major league team, and one in ten-thousand- three-hundred and ninety-nine high school basketball players will go pro. Parents, have you made sports an idol, prioritizing your child's success over their spiritual growth?

Our current cultural climate is one that is marked by hatred and divisions. If our kids follow the lead of what they are seeing and learning on social media, they will be nurtured into something other than what Jesus commands in John fifteen twelve. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” In his book “Mere Morality”, the late theologian Lewis Smedes tells us that the way Jesus loves us is the norm for how we are to love others. His life is our authoritative model. Smedes goes on to share four truths about how Jesus loves. First, love moved Jesus to help people. Second, love moved Jesus to help all people. Third, love moved Jesus to help all people for their sakes. Specifically, he humbled himself and suffered the agony of human life and the cross for our sakes. And finally, love moved Jesus to help all people for their sakes without regard for cost. This is what we must model and teach if we want our kids to love others as Jesus has loved them.

School has been back in session for a couple of months now and you can be sure that there are a host of high schoolers thinking about where they are going to attend college. Members of SheKnows Teen Council were surveyed regarding their approach to college applications. When asked to use one word to describe how they were feeling about the application process they used a variety of words, including uncertain, overwhelmed, anxious, nervous, stressed, competitive, terrified, ready, excited, and restless. We have found that our culture along with peer and social media pressure has made the college application process stressful for both students and their parents. As Christian parents, we need to lead our kids into understanding that college acceptance is not to be pursued as a mark of their identity. Rather, they are to lean into the peace given by God as He directs the process, and they are to approach college as vocational prep for a lifetime of serving and glorifying God.

Once again, I want to give you a little update on the slang words that are trending in today's world of children and teens. I do this as a service so that you can overcome your chronic parental ignorance in order to understand your kids, and even use these words yourself in a fun-loving effort to embarrass your kids! The word Aura refers to someone's cool level. At times kids will give aura points to someone who has shown a high level of cool. If someone has crashed out they have lost their temper. Kids are glazing when they engage in overrating or hyping something up too much. Tuff, spelled T-U-F-F, is a synonym for awesome or excellent. The words bussin and smacks are often used to describe food that is very good. And if you are wondering how to refer to something that's good rather than bad, well, throw baddie, straight fire, or gas into the conversation. I know, it all sounds very confusing, but just like we did during our teen years, our kids are inventing and using slang.

Late last summer, I checked off a long-standing bucket list item by spending a day at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Experiencing it for myself was awesome, and it was made even better by taking my three oldest grandsons along with me. While the baseball was good, there was much more than the games to experience. As would be expected in today's marketing saturated world, a variety of companies from sporting goods stores to those who make sunscreen had experiential booths set up. My grandsons, being young baseball players themselves, were especially drawn to the Easton bat display, where all the attention was placed on the Easton Hype Fire bat, which retails for anywhere from three hundred to four hundred dollars, which is actually cheaper than their five hundred dollar Dub bat. This got me thinking: why do we spend so much on youth sports? Is this really good stewardship? And what are we teaching our kids about spending to God's glory?

Today, I want to warn you about yet another viral teenage TikTok video challenge, this one that's been around for awhile, but has seemed to find new life resulting in some dangerous practices, hospitalizations, and even death. Social media's Benadryl Challenge hit the news again last month when the parents of a thirteen year old girl found her hallucinating with an elevated heart rate of almost two hundred beats per minute. Her parents rushed her to the hospital where she was treated and recovered. When doctor's asked if this was a suicide attempt, the girl said that she had learned from online videos and a friend that taking enough Benadryl would lead to a high. Upon looking through her daughter's phone, the mother found videos promoting the Benadryl challenge all over her feed. Parents, our kids are impulsive and they are prone to taking risks. But they benefit from warnings that stem from your knowledge, warnings to guide them into caring for their God-given bodies.

Many parents have been playing catch-up when it comes to understanding and setting boundaries around emerging technologies. One such technology is the growing prevalence of online Artificial Intelligence chatbots, a technology which we can all interact with to get answers to our questions, to create photos, and to do research, among other things. Here at CPYU, we have many concerns about AI, chatgpt, and chatbots. Yes, they can be used for good, but there are many stories coming out about teenagers who have interacted with the technology in search for guidance, direction, and answers to their questions. Recently, the family of sixteen-year old Adam Raine filed suit against OpenAi for the role that ChatGPT played in their son's suicide. Raine was able to bypass some of the safety features to get information about methods of suicide. Parents, our kids are navigating the confusing years of adolescence with many questions. Are you listening and giving biblical answers?

The kids have been back in school for a couple of months now, which has allowed plenty of time for marketers to collect their data on the spending preferences and habits of our kids. The folks at TeenVoice tell us that this year kids were excited about shopping. Using a scale of one to five, the excitability factor averaged about three-point-six, with girls and boys being equal, and younger kids more excited than those who are older to go shopping. When it comes to who is influencing their purchases, social media and parents hold equal influence. You won't be surprised that this year's in-demand shoe brands are Nike, Adidas, and Jordans. Preferred backpack brands are Nike, Jansport, and North Face. And what about skinny jeans? Well, they are “out” this year. As Christian parents, we need to mindful of our need to counter the constant onslaught of marketing messages that convince our kids that they are what they wear. Instead, we need to teach them principles and practices of biblical stewardship.

The prayers we find in the Scriptures are prayers that we can pray for our children and teens. In II Thessalonians 3:5, the Apostle Paul follows up his statements on God's faithfulness and promised protection from the evil one with this prayer: “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.” First, Paul prays that God would “direct,” or “make straight” the paths of their hearts. We too should be praying that God would remove all the obstacles the evil one throws in the paths of our kids. Second, he prays that their hearts would be focused on the love of God and on Christ's endurance. Like Paul, we should pray that our kids would not only be focused on God's love for them, but on pursuing their own love for God. And, just as Christ steadfastly pursued and endured earthly trials and the suffering of the Cross, so too should we desire that our kids would grow in their faith to the point of persevering for Christ in the midst of great challenges. 

C.S. Lewis once said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, but shouts to us in our pains.” Those words capture a truth that the Scriptures put forth from Genesis to Revelation. It seems that whenever God would do his greatest work in the lives of those he loved, he would bring about great spiritual growth and increased faith through the gift of pain. In today's world, we are taught to avoid pain and pursue pleasure. In addition, we've been led to believe that if we are experiencing the pain of difficulty and difficult times, God must be absent. But the Bible teaches us the exact opposite. God is present in our sufferings. How is it that we miss this truth so easily? As parents, there will be times of great hearthache, pain, and difficulty. Never forget that these are the times where God is parenting us, where he is doing great work, and where he is nurturing us into people who are totally dependent on him and on nothing else. Consider it all joy when you experience God's love in pain.

Parents, today I want to give you a heads-up and issue a warning which I hope motivates you to track with the latest developments in digital technology and the way in which these developments might undermine the well-being of our kids. You're no doubt aware that Virtual Reality and the Metaverse here to stay and will be advancing quickly in the years to come. Based on the fact that online victimization of children and teens is a well-known reality in today's digital world, experts are now working to catch and address what victimization will look like in the metaverse and through virtual reality. Researchers at Florida Atlantic University has found that a significant percentage of teens who engage with these technologies have reported encountering hate speech, bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, grooming behaviors from predators, and unwanted exposure to violent or sexually explicit content. Parents, you are the gatekeepers. Always monitor use, educate for safety, and set limits.

Because we have been made for relationships, it's important that our kids develop healthy friendships where they learn how to relate to others, how to play together, and how to solve conflicts. The C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health recently asked the parents of six to twelve year old children about their children's friendships. Nineteen percent of parents report that their child either has no friends or not enough friends. In addition, seventy-one percent of parents say that they've taken action over the course of the last year to help their child make new friends, including setting up playdates and befriending other parents. There is an epidemic of loneliness among today's emerging generations, and we need to do what we can to encourage them into positive friendships, especially with those who will encourage them to grow in their relationships to the Lord. Parents, Proverbs tells us that he who walks with the wise, grows wise. 

Precocious puberty, also known as early puberty, takes place when a child's body begins to change into an adult body too soon. In today's world, puberty usually begins for girls around age eight, and around age nine for our boys. In recent years, there has also been research showing that in general, our kids are reaching puberty at earlier and earlier ages. There have been lots of different theories put forward regarding what's causing this. Researchers tell us that one factor which triggers early puberty in girls are the fragrance producing chemicals that are in the commercial beauty and skin-care products that flood the market, and that have become especially popular among pre-teen and younger girls in recent years. Research indicates these fragrances have the potential to stimulate parts of the brain that trigger early puberty, risks of psychological problems, heart disease, and breast cancer associated with early puberty. Parents, keep an eye on the products your kids are using.

All this week we've been looking at David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock's book Faith for Exiles, and the five ministry practices churches and families must pursue to lead kids into life-long faith. The research done by Kinnaman and Matlock indicates that in order to form a lasting faith, we must curb the cultural tendency toward entitlement and self-centeredness by getting our kids engaged in counter-cultural mission. This does not mean that we need to be sure they get involved in a missions trip once or twice a year. Sure, those experiences can be valuable for our kids. But engaging in countercultural mission means living as a faithful presence wherever we are, by trusting God's power and living differently from cultural norms. This means that we bloom for God as His ambassador wherever we are planted. We need to teach our kids to play to his glory, study to his glory, conduct themselves in relationships to his glory, and live every moment to his glory. Let's pray that our kids grow to embrace and live the faith!

All this week we're looking at David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock's book Faith for Exiles, and the five ministry practices churches and families must pursue to lead kids into life-long faith. The research done by Kinnaman and Matlock indicates that in order to form a lasting faith, we must ground and motivate our kids through training for vocational discipleship. This means that they know and live out God's calling on their lives, especially in the arena of work while conforming their ambitions to God's purposes. In today's world, the culture teaches our kids to pursue work and vocation as a passport to privilege. Rather than seeing work as a way to serve God and further His kingdom, our work is about making money, pursuing fame, and building up the kingdom of me, myself, and I. One of the key opportunities facing the twenty-first-century church is to help kids learn that they have been made for something, and that something is a life where faith is integrated into their work.

All this week we're looking at David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock's book Faith for Exiles, and the five ministry practices churches and families must pursue to lead kids into life-long faith. The research done by Kinnaman and Matlock indicates that in order to form a lasting faith, we must work to create a church and family culture where rather than separating the generations, meaningful intergenerational relationships are formed with fellow believers who live and model a deep faith in Jesus Christ. Our culture is marked by isolation and mistrust between different generations. Some specific ways to make this happen include starting a mentoring program at your church where an older believer is paired with a young person. Our worship services should be inter-generational rather than generationally-segmented. And our homes should be places where our kids are exposed to older Christians as we practice hospitality. Endeavor to give your kids the gift of sitting under the wisdom of those who are older.

All this week we're looking at David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock's book Faith for Exiles, and the five ministry practices churches and families must pursue to lead kids into life-long faith. The research done by Kinnaman and Matlock indicates that in order to form a lasting faith, we must lead our kids into developing the muscles of cultural discernment. Exercising cultural discernment means that we all must take part in a robust learning community that seeks, under the authority of the Bible, to wisely navigate today's rapidly changing culture. This means that we must develop their ability to compare the beliefs, values, customs, and creations of the world we live in with those of the world we belong to, which is the Kingdom of God. And once that comparison has been made, we need to anchor our lives to the theological, ethical, and moral norms of God's Kingdom. Parents, in order to lead your kids into living counter-culturally to the glory of God, you must be doing the same.

With so many of our young adults graduating from high school and walking away from the faith, what can we do to lead them to embrace a lasting faith? All this week we're going to look at David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock's book Faith for Exiles, and the five ministry practices churches and families must pursue to lead kids into life-long faith. The research done by Kinnaman and Matlock indicates that in order to form a lasting faith, we must lead our kids into experiencing intimacy with Jesus. This is best done by clearing what they call the religious clutter that so easily sidetracks us. We've been complicit in presenting a Jesus to compete at the same level as our other affinities and affiliations. In addition we've expected way too little from our kids. They are more willing to be challenged than the church is willing to challenge them. And, parents must be living a life of spiritual vitality where they give everything they have and are over to Jesus. Let's lead our kids into a deep and lasting faith.

Here's an interesting strategy to consider as you think about how to lead the teenagers you know away from a culturally-influenced self-centered lifestyle, to a God-centered lifestyle: pray for crisis to enter their lives. Self-centeredness with no room for God plays and advances well in a youth culture that feeds the beast of self-absorption from a deep well of luxury and wealth. Sometimes it's not until the well runs dry through poverty, want, or crisis that our kids understand their thirst for what it really is – a longing not after self, but after God. While our kids might not see it as such, it's a blessing when the clay feet on which a self-centered lifestyle is built crumble to dust. Sadly, that's oftentimes what it takes for them to reach out to their heavenly Father. As John Stott reminds us about the prodigal son, “he had to ‘come to himself' by acknowledging his self-centeredness, before he could ‘come to his father.'” While we hate to see our kids hurt, sometimes that hurt helps!

From time to time I tell you about the power that marketing has over our kids. Marketing not only peddles products, but it also sells and promotes a world view. Yes, marketing shapes the way that our kids look at and live life. But our kids aren't the only targets that marketing so effectively hits. Marketing also shapes us adults. It's for that reason that I want to sound a warning that relates to one message marketing so effectively is sending to us as parents. That message is this: don't grow old. It seems that we're listening as we older folks have become obsessed over our appearance, our clothing, our complexions, our body shapes, and more. We spend billions and billions of dollars trying to stop something that just can't be stopped. Ultimately, this is idolatry. And in the process, we're teaching our kids to grow up to worship the idol of youthfulness as well. Parents, consider what it is that you worship, and the message you're sending to your kids about what's most important in life.

“I had a simple rule for my kid. I now realize what a hypocrite I am.” That's the headline over an article about kids and device usage written by Molly Mulshine, a young mother of a one-year-old. Mulshine begins by proudly telling readers that she never puts her phone in the hands of her child for the admirable reason that she doesn't want her spending time on or getting addicted to a device. But Mulshine was surprised when that little one-year-old got ahold of mom's phone, and in Mulshine's words, “started scrolling and swiping with the muscle memory of a bored teen.” Mulshine soon realized that it was the example of her own addiction to her phone that was modeling exactly what she didn't want to see happen to her own child. Mulshine offers up this question that all wise and concerned parents should be asking themselves: Will my excessive phone use make my daughter long for the sweet, lobotomizing glow of a high-tech rectangle, despite any screen limits I place on her? Parent, think about it.

There's some new data on teenagers and vaping that deserves our attention. Published in the journal Pediatrics, the data looks at trends in vaping behaviors among our eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders. Near daily vaping was admitted by one-point-seven percent of eighth graders, four-point-two percent of tenth graders, and almost eight percent of twelfth graders. When asked why they vape, the three top reasons are these: to relax and relieve stress was number one, cited by over seventy percent of those kids who vaped daily. Second on the list was experimentation, and coming in at third was vaping to relieve boredom. Other reasons cited include the taste, feeling good, convenience, and to have a good time. Parents, be aware that there are numerous health issues related to vaping. It is not safe. Take the time to raise your awareness of the consequences of vaping, warn your kids, and direct them to the Lord who promises to minister to them in their stress and anxiety.

“Be sure to look them in the eye and say please and thank you.” If you grew up in home like mine, you constantly heard those words from your mother as she was training you to be kind and polite in social situations. I learned that lesson well and hope that we were successful in passing it on to our own kids. New research from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has found that when family members show appreciation and gratitude to each other through saying “thank you”, relationships are strengthened and mental health improves. For married couples, showing gratitude to your partner improves relationship satisfaction and mental health. When a child expresses thanks to a parent, parenting stress is actually reduced. As Christian parents, we want to be sure to teach our kids that all good things come from God, including the gift of salvation. Point them to I Chronicles 16:34: “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”

Parents, are you aware that the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning parents, educators, caregivers, teens, and children about the growing tide of online dangers that they say may lead to the solicitation and enticement of minors to engage in sexual acts. Known as “sextortion”, this danger involves a perpetrator coercing a minor to create and send sexually explicit material. If the perpetrator gets the sexually explicit material, they will then threaten to release those pictures online unless the victim produces more of the same, or unless the victim sends a payment often in gift cards, wire transfers, mobile payment services, or cryptocurrency. Sextortion victims are most often males between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, but anyone of any age or gender can become a victim. Parents, teach your kids to never engage in online communication with someone they don't know, and teach them God's good design for the sacred gift of their sexuality.

One of the most beautiful and telling aspects of the Genesis Creation narrative relates to the importance of relationships. In Genesis one twenty-six we read these words, “Then God said, ‘Let US make man in OUR image.” The God who created human beings as the crowning point of creation is a trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And out of that divine relationship comes the creation of those who God said later in Genesis 2:18, “It is not good that the man should be alone.” Relationships are a key part of our humanity. We are made for them, and it is reasonable to assume that without them, our flourishing and well-being are undermined. Because of that, it's not surprising that scientists at the University of Cambridge have discovered that teens who spend time alone in their rooms, even while relating to others online, are actually isolated in ways that lead to excessive worry, feeling unsafe, and lonely. Your kids need flesh and blood social interaction. They've been made for it.

Russell Kirk was a twentieth century social critic who back in 1992 said something very important regarding the changes taking place in culture as it slides further and further into secularism, and what needs to take place. Kirk said, “If a culture is to survive and flourish, it must not be severed from the religious vision out of which it arose. The high necessity of reflective man and women, then, is to labor for the restoration of religious teachings as a credible body of doctrine. America as we know it cannot survive without biblical Christianity. The rights we cherish, the freedoms we enjoy, the ideals we all love together – all are rooted in and sustained by the tradition of the Bible. Christianity is the electric current of our national life. Turn it off, and the light will fade.” Parents and youth workers, it begins with all of us studying and knowing the truths of God's Word. Then, we must be committed to teaching and telling the truth to our kids, all the time! 

As the recreational use of marijuana has become more widespread, socially acceptable, and even legal in many states, the notion that smoking or ingesting cannabis products is actually harmless has spread as well. But a growing body of research is reporting on a variety of harmful effects from the use of cannabis. A new study published in the journal, Addiction Biology, is suggesting that using cannabis causes damage to cells, which in turn increases one's risk for developing cancerous tumors. Specifically, researchers found that cannabis use damages the genetic information in a cell, which can lead to cancer and accelerated aging. And, with the modification of the DNA in a cell, a parent can pass on altered or damage DNA to their offspring, thereby increasing the risk of premature aging and cancer for that child. Parents, we need to raise our children well, doing all we can to enable them to steward the health of those bodies to God's glory!

As a baby boomer, I'm part of a generation that believed that adulthood began at age eighteen, which usually coincided with the time a teenager graduated from high school and went into the work force or off to college. For generation z – those born between 1997 and 2012 – there's the belief that adulthood doesn't begin until sometime around the ages of twenty-seven to thirty. Researchers found that only eleven percent of Gen Z-ers say they feel like adults. One reason for this is that they don't have the financial stability they believe they need to be considered adults, including being able to pay all their own bills, contributing to a retirement account, and having a life insurance policy. In fact, forty percent of those surveyed don't think they'll ever be financially stable. Perhaps we need to be more intentional about raising our kids to take on responsibility, coddling them less, requiring them to learn the value of work, and teaching them principles of biblical stewardship.

Today we conclude our week-long look at what it means to entrust our children to God. To entrust our children to God is to completely entrust our children to God! While yes, we have been given the aforementioned responsibilities to tend, teach, and train, we cannot drag, push, or pull our kids screaming and kicking into the Kingdom of God. There is no guarantee that we will see the results that we want, in the way that we want, or in the time that we want. No, “salvation belongs to the Lord!” It is only the Holy Spirit, working in His way and His time, who will call our children to faith. We need to constantly remind ourselves of what I heard R.C. Sproul say on many occasions: “God has entrusted the ministry of the Word to us, not its results.” Our high calling is to be faithful and obedient. . . and to leave the rest up to God. Let me remind you once again, that there is no higher parental calling or privilege than to focus your time, energy, and prayers on leading your kids to love and serve Jesus.

All this week we're looking at what it means for us as Christian parents to entrust our children to God. In First Timothy four, six to ten we learn that to entrust your children to God is to train them in righteousness. Knowing sound doctrine is a worthless pursuit if that doctrine is not translated into everyday living. Our parenting should be directed to the end of not just honoring God with our lips, but glorifying Him with our lives, as we learn in Mark 7:6. One way parents can teach this is to look for those everyday opportunities to employ what I call the World-Word-Walk paradigm. It starts with keeping your ears and eyes open to the current cultural narrative. What is the world teaching our kids? We point these things out and then examine them with our children under the light of God's Word. Finally, we think and pray with them about how God's Word is calling them to walk obediently to God's glory in the midst of a world that teaches them to live contrary to the Gospel. 

All this week we're looking at what it means for us as Christian parents to entrust our children to God. To entrust your children to God is to teach them doctrine. Our children and teens are seeking answers to two basic developmental questions: “Who am I?” and “What do I believe” Thanks to smartphones and social media, culture is catechizing our kids around the clock. While they turn to their devices to make sense of life in the world, we must lead them into the life-giving Word of God, which is the only source of Truth. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 reminds us that we are to be intentional about constantly and diligently teaching them God's Word, showing them how it speaks to all of life. Our approach is to be multi-sensory as we talk, sit, walk, lie down, and rise up with God's Word on our lips and our lives. We teach sound doctrine by enlisting the tools of age-appropriate Catechisms, family devotions, and the everyday teachable moments that offer opportunities to pass on the truths of God's Word. 

All this week we're looking at what it means for us as Christian parents to entrust our children to God. One of the most important things to remember is that to entrust your children to God is to tend to yourself. I love Tedd Tripp's definition of parenting as “shepherding the hearts of your children in the ways of God's wisdom.” It follows that the only way we can effectively nurture our children in the ways of God's wisdom is to be constantly nurturing ourselves. The Apostle Paul's words to the Colossians tell us that “therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving”. We can only lead our children to where we are. If you want your children to walk the road of discipleship and to love Jesus Christ with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, we have to do the same ourselves. Take stock of your life, and ask God to show you where change is needed.

My fourteen-year-old self had gone to bed at my usual 9pm time. Two hours later, I woke up to use the bathroom. While walking undetected past my parents darkened room, I not only heard my dad whispering, but I heard him whispering my name. It was at that unforgettable moment that I learned that my parents' bedtime routine included intercession on behalf of their three children. I had been blessed with parents whose only stated hope for me was that I would grow up to love, follow, and serve Jesus Christ. As Christian parents, our hope for our children should be the same. The good news is that parents always exercise the greatest influence on the spiritual lives of their children. God has established the home as the primary arena for spiritual nurture. This influence is effectively exercised as we entrust our children to God, which includes certain responsibilities that He has entrusted to us. Listen in all this week as we talk about how to entrust our children to God.

I recently read through the report on teens and media from the University of California and found some thought-provoking data. The report is titled “Reality Bites: Teens and Screens 2024.” As I was reading through the survey there was one bit of data that caused me to pause, and I want to pass it on to you. This question was asked to the ten to twenty-four year olds who participated in the survey: “At what age did you start using social media?” Now remember that the major social media platforms require users to be at least thirteen years old to create an account. The reason for this is compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Remember too, that there is growing movement to keep kids off social media until the age of sixteen. So, how did respondents answer the question regarding when they started using social media? Fifty-one- point-five percent, over half, started using social media under the age of thirteen, with many at or under age ten. Parents, what about your kids?

Today, I want to talk about a research finding that might make your kids angry, but it might also help your kids perform better in school. A study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found that a student's cognitive performance may be improved if they walk to school, rather than be driven to school in a car or on the bus. It seems that God has wired our bodies in such a way that teenagers who engage in physical activity early in the morning wind up stimulating their brains in ways that contribute to increased cognitive performance during the school day. And because adolescent females are typically less active than their male peers, that early morning walk is especially helpful to our girls. While researchers do say that there are actually a multiplicity of factors that could be at work here, one thing is sure: this research reminds us that God made us as integrated beings. To be balanced, our kids need to get enough exercise. Make sure your kids are active and not dormant.

A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looks at the issue of bullying in the lives of our twelve to seventeen-year-olds. The report defines bullying as occurring when “a person is exposed to aggressive behavior repeatedly over time by one or more people and is unable to defend themself.” More than a third of the kids surveyed say they've been bullied over the past year. Over thirty-eight percent of twelve to seventeen year old girls report being bullied, and just under thirty percent of the boys surveyed report being bullied. The report also found that bullying is more prevalent among twelve to fourteen year olds, at just over thirty-eight percent, and less prevalent among fifteen to seventeen year olds, at just under thirty percent. With bullying prevalent in today's teen culture, we need to teach our kids to show the love of Christ to their divine-image-bearing peers, and we need to minister well to our kids who have been victimized so that we might build their resilience.

Imagine a factory where the workers come in for eight hour shifts. At the end of each shift, a whistle blows to signal that it's time to pack up and go home. It's eight hours of work and then time to punch out. There's a new and different working trend among young adults that's been labeled as “grind culture” or “hustle culture.” Works days are marked by a work hard and don't go home mentality, all in an effort to increase production and climb the ladder. The World Health Organization reports that four hundred and eighty-eight million people around the world are putting in more than fifty five hours a week at work. As Christians, we are to work as unto the Lord. We are to be hard workers who pursue excellence. But if the motivating factor to our hard work is about bringing glory to something or someone other than God, then we are engaging in idolatry. Teach your children to see work as an act of worship, without sacrificing time with family, and time with the Lord.

As Christian parents, we are called to raise our kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We must be doing what we can to lead them into an adulthood that is spiritually, emotionally, relationally, intellectually, AND physically healthy. Their physical health depends greatly on how we teach them to steward their God-given bodies during their childhood and teenage years. One aspect of this that's related to today's youth culture regards caffeine intake. Are you aware, for example, that your local quickmart drink coolers are filled with aggressively marketed caffeine-infused energy drinks that appeal to teens? And, are you aware that ER visits due to eating or drinking too much caffeine have doubled among middle school kids, and almost doubled for our high schoolers between 2017 and 2023? Parents, we need to educate our kids on God-honoring matters of health and on the dangers of caffeine intake, along with setting borders and boundaries for their consumption.

All this week we're looking at some four-hundred year old guidance and advice from the Puritan writer, Thomas Brooks. Specifically, Brooks has listed five remedies to the enemy of the soul's  strategy to get us to see following Jesus as a dangerous, losing, and suffering-filled way of life. Brooks offers great insights for us to share with our kids as they face opposition in this world. Today, Brooks tells us to consider that we gain more in our service of God and by following God as we face troubles and afflictions, than we can ever possibly lose by following God. Jesus said it this way: “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet forfeit their soul?” Thomas Brooks uses the metaphor of money when he says that for every penny a Christian might lose in the service of God, he in turn will gain a dollar. Our light afflictions will result in the weight of glory. Life as a follower of Christ in today's culture is difficult. Still, it is the path to flourishing now and for eternity!

All this week we're looking at some four-hundred year old guidance and advice from the Puritan writer, Thomas Brooks. Specifically, Brooks has listed five remedies to the enemy of the soul's  strategy to get us to see following Jesus as a dangerous, losing, and suffering-filled way of life. Brooks offers great insights for us to share with our kids as they face opposition in this world. Today, Brooks tells us to always remember that difficulties and troubles in this world are actually a way that God grows us in our faith. Specifically, Brooks writes these words: “God knows how to deliver us from troubles by troubles, from afflictions by afflictions, and from dangers by dangers. In my own life I've seen this to be true. Sometimes God saves us from ourselves and our foolishness through times of difficulty. While these times have been hard, I would not, in hindsight, trade them for anything. God's curriculum for our growth and flourishing often-times comes through difficulty.