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PURITY THROUGHOUT EACH DAY

"I see an astronaut for ‘A’!" "There’s a baseball player for ‘B’!" "Computer for 'C'!" Remember playing the "billboard game" on family vacations and watching for pictures of things that start with consecutive letters of the alphabet? Would you dare have your kids play that game today? Only a few minutes would pass until you faced some pictures that would challenge your desire to keep your child’s mind pure. Sex in American society is used both to sell and to entertain. Not only is sex used on highway billboards, magazine ads, radio music, store displays, and television commercials, but it pervades television shows and G-rated movies with implied or actual sexual scenes and invades our computer screens with unsolicited pop-ups. Also, going to almost any public place will expose kids to people wearing suggestive or revealing clothing. How can a parent keep a child’s mind pure?

Teaching wise, careful choices of television programs, movies, books, magazines, and radio stations is a start. However, in this society there will be unavoidable exposure to sights that are indecent. A child needs some decisive thought patterns to choose when his/her eyes are innocently exposed.

We can start with Yahweh’s words as a Sword to combat the enemy’s tactics. Use 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 to enlighten children with respect for the human body. "Or do you not know that your body is the Dwelling Place of the Set-apart Spirit who is in you, which you have from Elohim, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a price, therefore esteem Elohim in your body and in your spirit, which are of Elohim." Use 1 Corinthians 6:18 to teach them right and wrong attitudes about sex: "Flee whoring. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits whoring sins against his own body."

Use Ibrim/Hebrews 13:4 to prepare them to wait for marital sex: "Let marriage be respected by all, and the bed be undefiled. But Elohim shall judge those who whore, and adulterers." Use Mishle/Proverbs 5 and Shir haShirim/Song of Songs as is age-appropriate.

Teach your daughter that when her dress draws attention to her figure, she is potentially tempting a boy to lust, but 1 Corinthians 10:31-32 says, "Therefore whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the esteem of Elohim. Cause no stumbling, either to the Yehudim or to the Greeks or to the assembly of Elohim." Help her desire to save for her future husband all such attention to her beauty. Challenge her to seek a mate who especially appreciates her personality and inner beauty. Make her aware of her deep need to be emotionally loved and of the temptation for females to substitute physical attention/touch for real love. Above all, she needs to experience Yahweh’s love as the ultimate source to meet her heart’s deepest passions.

Teach your son to respect the human body, whether male or female, as a temple and a treasure. Explain how he is visually stimulated and therefore more responsible to guard his eyes and to keep his eyes/mind pure for his future wife. Warn him that casual treatment of sex in what he sees, hears, and reads will taint his ability to enjoy marital sex to its fullest. Introduce the practice of both "bouncing his eyes" off of pictures or scenes that would tarnish self-purity and quickly praying for Yahweh to erase the mental images.

Emphasize that all people, including females, are persons that Yahweh cherishes, but they may not have been encouraged to value their own bodies. They are souls that need purifying and may need salvation. Research the studies showing that viewing porn is as addicting as cocaine. Church leaders are falling into immorality because they think viewing internet porn won’t hurt anyone, but it does. It numbs their own ability to respond to their wives physically and emotionally.

It decreases respect for women in general. It causes guilt, shame, and deception that erode personalities. It is destroying marriage and families across the nation as 75% of churched men struggle with the easy availability of internet pornography. Dr. James Dobson calls it an "intimacy disorder."< Of course, the best teaching method is modeling what you believe. Moms, is your choice of clothing modest and honoring to Yahweh? Do you show contentment and celebration in how Yahweh and your husband meet your emotional needs? Dads, is your television viewing wholesome and your language respectful to/about women? Are your reactions to unexpected billboards, suggestive commercials, and off-color radio jokes indicative of your high moral standards? Realize that Satan has desensitized our society to sexual sins, but as spiritual leaders of your family, you must yearn for all Yahweh’s children to experience His love as their highest passion and His gift of sex as a beautiful wedding gift He created for marriage.

Parents need to pray for discernment about their children’s lives and minds and help Yahweh mold them for His glory. Mishle/Proverbs 22:6 challenges us: "Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he turns not away from it."