Written by:
Jonathan Wells
I want to start off by asking some sincere questions.
Do you want your teen to leave your house at midnight
totally unsupervised with no concerns as to their whereabouts? Do you want your
teen to meet up with the opposite gender all alone without your knowledge or
supervision? Do you want your teen to attend a rock concert? Do you want your
teen to freely access immoral and ungodly information from unknown sources? Do
you want the world to guide, direct, teach, and indoctrinate your teen?
Any caring, loving, and godly parent would say,
"NO!" to every one of these questions.
Yet, a trend is starting to happen in our Christian
homes. Teenagers are doing some, if not all of these things listed above. Yes,
they are doing it under the very noses of their parents. "How can this
be?" you ask. It's very simple. Parents are giving their teens a handheld
device. Yes, a phone or a tablet.
With this device, your teen can leave your house after
hours and spend time with anyone they want to in the world. With this device,
your teen can meet up with the opposite gender and you would never know. With
this device, your teen can attend rock concerts by listening to that ungodly
music for free. With this device, your teen can freely access any and all
information on the world-wide web. With this device, your teen is influenced heavily
by the world.
It's a sad, sad day we live in. Parents are blindly
giving these things over to their teens and just expecting them to be mature
Christians and not make any wrong decisions. But even the most mature
Christians can make mistakes and fall. The Bible says, "For a just man falleth seven times, and
riseth up again..." (Prov. 24:16) Good people can & will fall. Our
goal should be to help people NOT to fall. "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Matt.
26:41) How do we help them to not fall? Put safeguards in place.
I don't even trust myself with these handheld devices.
So, I have my wife put heavy restrictions in place to keep all my devices
monitored. Why? Because I don't trust my flesh. Even Paul said, "...I die
daily." David had to make a "covenant" with his eyes. Daniel had
to "Purpose in his heart." Anyone who says, "I trust my teen to
not mess up" is not wise.
Therefore, I beg of you parents; help your teen by
putting restrictions on their devices.
There are many safeguards you can put in place. There
is a company with an app called "ParentKit." You can install this on
iOS and Android devices. It costs money but it's worth every penny.
There is also a company for monitoring computers
called, "Covenant Eyes." Again, this costs money but it is worth it!
I beg of you parents, please love your teen enough to
know what they're doing on their devices.
And if you are a teen reading this, please, get with
your parents and start being accountable to them.
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