Guarding Our Children's Hearts

I sometimes read the local paper online, and this is something that I stumbled upon today:

DEAR ABBY: I'm a 20-year-old female who has been dating my boyfriend, "Will," for three years. Our long-distance relationship was going along just fine until the topic of his 21st birthday came up recently. Will mentioned in passing that he's planning on going to a strip club with friends to celebrate this momentous birthday.Will says he just likes to look at women, that all men do and it's completely fine. He didn't seem to care how I felt about it. His mind was already made up. He wants me to be more accepting of who he is, but it turns my stomach to think of him hanging out at a strip club.

OFFENDED IN,
FORT COLLINS, COLO.

DEAR OFFENDED: If your boyfriend had attempted to hide his plans from you, or if he was planning on frequenting strip clubs alone and often, I'd say you should feel threatened. But he was open about going out to celebrate his "momentous" birthday with his friends — and plenty of women have been known to visit clubs with male dancers. So calm down. This has nothing to do with his "commitment" to you.

I can remember being in my late teens & early 20's watching movies and TV shows where the storyline almost always included young adults casually having sex.  I remember feeling like I took things like that (sex) too seriously, because it was done so casually on TV.  I thought I was over-reacting.  Now don't get me wrong.  I'm not pretending that I did everything the way I should have back then.  I didn't.  Judging by what I saw around me, I thought I was the only one who felt that way.  I didn't realize it then, but I was looking to the world to determine what was right and wrong - not God.  That's why it never sat right with me. 

I read the article that I posted above, and it just made me sad.  I feel so sad that this girl was made to feel like she was over-reacting to her boyfriend going to a strip club.  She SHOULD feel a lack of commitment from him.  God never created us to live like that.  God did not create us to lust after people who are not our spouse.  It's perfectly natural that she feels the way she does, because it goes against God's plan for mankind.  I realize that they were dating and not married.  God says, though, that even looking at a woman with lust is committing adultery!

Matthew 5:28 says, "But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust in his eye has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

Ephesians 5:5 says, "Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God."

This has made me even more determined to raise my children to know that following the world's standards will always lead to sin. The "world" is any belief, lifestyle, or way of thinking that is not of God.  It will always lead you away from God.  I never want either of my children to think that they are over-reacting when presented with lust or sex outside of marriage.  I know that I cannot control what they are exposed to when they are not with me.  Sometimes, I cannot even control what they're exposed to when they ARE with me. (Certain magazines in view at the check-out line, etc.) 

This article has made me even more determined to guard the hearts of my children all the more carefully.  That is my job as their mom.  We are already so careful about the DVD's that Joshua watches.  It may seem like no big deal to some people, but the movies/TV shows that our children watch are teaching them values!  Are they God's values, though?  Their young minds don't have the "filter" that we have to realize that everything they see is not ok.  Their sense of what is "normal" is being formed with everything they see.  As our children get older, it will be so much more difficult to monitor these things.  We have to be the ones to guard their hearts, because no one else will.  The world will never guard their hearts!  As they get older, I am hoping they will have learned how to guard their hearts by the example we have set.  They will know why we don't watch certain movies, TV shows, etc.  That is only the tip of the iceberg!  They will know that the world will always lead them away from God.  (I still feel like I'm learning this one myself, sometimes.)

Jesus, thank you for teaching me so early in my children's lives to guard their hearts.  Thank you that I have a husband who's heart is sensitive to this, also.  We, as parents, are to guard our children's hearts!