After school, when children sit down to watch a show or a movie, the moral decline is evident. Disney aired a cartoon showing a same-sex kiss. They’ve changed Beauty and the Beast to introduce a homosexual subplot. In Disney’s cartoon, The Owl House, a demon teaches kids how to become witches.
Cover Girl introduced a teenage boy, James Charles, as their new “cover girl.” Maybelline didn’t want to be outdone, so they countered by doing the same with a teenage boy, Manny Gutierrez. The January 2017 edition of National Geographic is a picture of a nine-year-old boy who looks just like a girl. He’s dressed in pink with long pink hair, and his quote reads: “The best thing about being a girl is, now I don’t have to pretend to be a boy.”
In Proverbsr 7, the foolish young man had to look for the harlot and put himself in a place to meet her: “Passing along the street near her corner; and he took the path to her house, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night” (Proverbs 7:8-9). He had to head down the street toward her house, and even go out at night when he knew he would not be seen.
The young fool had to go through many steps to reach her, but for young men today to encounter immoral women—how many steps do they need to take? They don’t need to wait for a certain time or even leave their homes. All they need to do is pick up their phones and get on the internet. The availability of sin today is unthinkable. The temptations our children face should motivate us to disciple them.
Throughout most of human history, there’s been an amount of legalized evil. Drunkenness, fornication, lying, gossip, and immodesty are all sins, and under most circumstances, they’re legal. But in recent decades, we’ve seen even more evil legalized. In 1973, the Supreme Court legalized the murder of babies within the womb. On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court required all states to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples. Laws are being enacted at a fierce rate in favor of transgender people. On June 15, 2020, the Supreme Court issued a law protecting homosexual and transgender workers from workplace discrimination. Citizens are required to support and pay for with their taxes, the progress of perversions. President Obama and other national leaders affirm not just the morality of these perversions, but the nobility of them. A few decades ago, if someone running for office defended these perversions, he wouldn’t be elected, but call something evil or perverse today, and an individual must doubt whether he could be considered a serious candidate for office.
In the state of Oregon, fifteen-year-olds are not legally allowed to drive, smoke, donate blood, get a tattoo, or even go to a tanning bed, but they are allowed to have an operation that attempts to change their gender. They can do so without parental consent, and the state will pay for it through the Oregon Health Plan. I remember being fifteen, and I remember coaching fifteen-year-olds. They are very impressionable and fickle. Dr. Paul McHugh, who led the Johns Hopkins Psychiatry Department, said, “Oregon’s policy amounts to child abuse. It’s a very radical and even mutilating treatment. Children age fifteen may not fully understand all the consequences of the procedures they are undergoing.” I’d be surprised if they understand even a fraction of the consequences. They’re fifteen!
Did you expect one day to be living in a world that affirms children who don’t know whether they want to be male or female? Tragically, these children must not have been taught one of the simplest and earliest truths contained in Scripture: “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27; repeated in Genesis 5:2, Matthew 19:4, and Mark 10:6).
Would we have so many children supposedly confused about their gender if parents were teaching their children this one simple truth from Scripture at an early age? Would we be dealing with this problem if men were raising their sons to be fathers and husbands, and women were raising their daughters to be wives and mothers? Here are three things we can do to combat the culture that is attempting to destroy our families.
First, Disciple Your Children
The responsibility to (disciple) train and teach children is on the parents’ shoulders. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” This is addressing parents—not the public school system, the government, or even the church. When Moses gave the Law to the new generation that was about to enter the Promised Land, he said, “You shall teach them [the words of God] diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deuteronomy 6:7). The “You” is parents. Ultimately, children belong to God, and secondarily, they belong to parents. The phrase “your children” is God’s way of saying that parents are charged as stewards to train them in His will and way. Parents must do this all the time, such as when they “sit in your house…walk by the way…lie down…rise up.”
Prior to pastoring, I taught elementary school. When the bell rang at the end of the day, the teaching concluded, and I sent the students home. But as parents, we never stop educating our children. God wants us to disciple them around the clock, every day, all day. When I was an officer in the Army, I was trained to “Always have a hip-pocket teaching available.” Our uniforms had large pockets on our hips, and we were supposed to have a teaching we could pull out at any moment to share with our soldiers. The same is true with our children. We should look for teachable moments throughout the day to disciple them on work, diligence, rest, laziness, service, joy, and thankfulness. As our children encounter day-to-day situations, we want to repeatedly say, “What does the Bible say about this? How does God’s Word apply to this situation?” Typically, children growing up in Christian homes learn Scripture, but how does this benefit them if it isn’t affecting their day-to-day lives, their relationships, and their decision-making?
Second, Avoid Hypocrisy
If we’re going to talk to our children about fearing and obeying God, we need to ensure we fear and obey God ourselves. Children can see through hypocrisy very easily. If our children know we’re not doing what we’re teaching, we can be sure they’re going to choose rebellion over obedience. I don’t know if there’s anything that pushes children to rebellion faster than hypocrisy.
The other Person who can see through hypocrisy is God. If parents pray for their children to fear and obey God, it’s hard to imagine Him answering those prayers if the parents don’t fear and obey Him. As parents, we all want our children to read the Word and be involved in the church, but it’s tragic when parents expect this for their children, but not for themselves. They’re setting their own children up for failure.
Third, Provide a Christian Worldview
In classrooms across the nation, students learn important subjects: math, reading, writing, science, and history. They also learn some important morals: do not lie, cheat, steal, be kind, work hard, and do your best. We homeschool our children, but if we only teach them academics and morality, then we’re not moving beyond anything public schools offer. We must ensure we’re doing what Deuteronomy 6:7 commands, diligently teaching our children the Word of God. If they learn academics that get them into the most prestigious schools in the nation, but they aren’t committed to using that education for Christ, what good have we accomplished?
Why do we teach our children:
- Reading? So they can read Scripture.
- Writing? So they can write about the Lord.
- Music? So they can worship the Lord and help others do the same.
- Science? So they can better know the Creator of creation.
- Art? So they can produce works that bring glory to God.
- History? So they can learn about our Christian heritage and the sacrifice many were willing to make to worship God freely and learn from the mistakes of those who rejected that same God.
And why do we teach them to work? So they can serve God: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
Paul’s son in the faith, Timothy, grew up to be a wonderful, godly, young man. He was so impressive that when Paul met him, young as Timothy was, he wanted to bring him along (Acts 16:3). What made Timothy so exceptional? Paul gives the answer: “From childhood you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). From a young age, Timothy knew the Scriptures, which did two things for him:
- 1. They provided him with salvation; they taught him the gospel and how to be saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus.
- 2. They [made him] wise; Scripture is where true wisdom comes from.
This is a great example of what we should desire for our children: that they know the Scriptures at a young age, and that they’re wise for salvation, which is to say they know to put their faith in Christ. Where did Timothy receive this instruction? Not from his public-school teacher, wonderful coach, the government, or even the church. He received it from his mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois (2 Timothy 1:5). And along with their fathers this is where our children should receive the same wisdom and discipleship.
About the Author
Scott LaPierre is a teaching pastor, author, and Christian speaker on marriage. He holds an MA in Biblical Studies from Liberty University. Scott and his wife, Katie, have been married for more than fifteen years. A former schoolteacher and Army officer, Scott currently leads a church in Washington State and supports his family on his pastor’s salary, allowing Katie to stay home with their ten children.
John Mitchell 
Terry Sweany