Mr. Timothy Snyder

dis-cern-ment [noun]: keenly selective judgment, good taste and judgment

“Parents, it’s 11:00 P.M. … Do you know where your children are?”

Are you old enough to remember local television stations broadcasting this public service announcement every evening? No responsible parent would allow their child to wander around the big bad world alone at night. No responsible parent would let their child to wander alone in the big bad world of electronic media. Do you know that television programs or movies your kids are watching? What websites they visit? What video games they play? What music they listen to?

Dr. David Walsh, the founder and president of the non-profit National Institute of Media and Family, said, “Whoever tells the stories defines the culture.” In generations past that would have been Grandma and Grandpa or Mom and Dad telling stories around the hearth. Today it’s the electronic media telling the stories and defining our culture. If you doubt the part about defining the culture, try to count how many television programs are pushing a homosexual agenda. How many programs tell views that sex with anyone, anywhere, at any time is just fine?

We should strive to protect our children from the poison that seems to pervade the electronic media, but as they grow older it becomes harder and harder to control everything they see and hear. That’s why we need to teach them discernment. It’s important to have open and honest discussion with our kids. Don’t ignore what’s happening in the electronic media. Talk about it. Most importantly, continue to keep your family firmly grounded in God’s Word. That’s the foundation that will give our children a basis for proper discernment as it strengthens their relationship with God.

The world of electronic media doesn’t have to be a big bad world. It can be a world of educational wonder and wholesome fun it we take control of it.

Axis.org has great Biblical resources to help parents disciple their teens, find more here.

The resources shared on this page reflect their author’s views and it is not a wholesale endorsement.