As many of you know, I recently became a father for the first time. And, in and out of, well, lacking sleep and midnight feedings and everything that comes with being a first time parent, there've been numerous lessons that have informed my last, well, the last month of my life. And one of those lessons, and we talk about this a lot on The Morning Show, is the need and necessity for real discipleship from parents toward their children.
It boggles my mind how so many parents are so quick to just give their child a device. We've seen it in public before that the child that's just setting at the table out at a restaurant with mom and dad. Mom and dad are not paying attention.
And the child is just playing there, watching a video on the iPad or the phone or the game system or you name it, whatever the case may be. And there's no supervision as to what's going on, even if there are parental blockers on whatever video that's being watched. Many of the videos that are being propped up by, say, YouTube Kids contains propaganda that is directly affecting your children.
There is no neutrality in this world anymore. It is Christ or it is chaos. When Disney or YouTube Kids pops a video up in front of your child talking about how this new cartoon character is bisexual or two-spirit, that is affecting your child. They are taking that in.
And even now, when my wife and I may be watching some innocuous TV show that happens to come up on the television, we're not really even paying attention to what's in it, and I hear a bad word slip through the TV, I don't want my daughter to hear those bad words. Words of profanity. I know that she is not going to really remember her first month of life. In fact, she won't.
But don't be so naïve to thinking that what she takes in, in her spirit, is not going to affect later in life. Be ever watchful and so vigilant over what your children consume. And it makes my heart glad that even when she's being fussy, she's able to be calmed by her mom and dad singing her a psalm or a classic hymn that is timeless.
And I know that she's soaking it in. There's a spiritual principle at play here, even in their youngest formative years.
Grant Allen can be reached by email at grantallen@iheartmedia.com. If you’re interested in reading his other posts, check out his archived content or learn more about him by checking his short bio here.