Parenting Tip #79 Run, not walk from evil

I want to talk some more about those negative images and thoughts that we all have. Something that Bruce Fordham said—who I quoted in my last post-- has made me stop and think. He said that you can’t get away from bad thoughts and images. Satan will make sure of that! His goal is to put temptations around us constantly. And that means those temptations are around our children constantly too.

We want to protect our children from ever seeing pornographic images on the internet or from seeing violence on t.v. or hearing swear words and sexual innuendos. But we can’t. There is much we can do, and should do, to reduce the evil our children will encounter, but there is nothing we can do to prevent them from eventually seeing and hearing something bad. Or even something very, very bad.

So what do we do? Teach our children what to do when they see evil. Teach them to immediately click the image away on the computer, turn the t.v. to a different station, walk away from images and swearing. Teach them to run, not walk, away from bad things.

But remember, our brain cannot replace thoughts with nothing. So next we need to teach our children what to do after they click, turn or run. And that is to replace the bad with something good. Have them choose a good song to sing, then practice with them singing the song. Ask them occasionally if they remember what song they will sing when they see something bad.

Let them choose a poem or scripture to say when they need to put good things in their brain. Choose a picture they will think about or a fun time they will immediately remember. Then role play and practice.

This would make a great family lesson to have with your children. Let them draw a picture of themselves with bad things inside their head (drawn as squiggles or scribbles). Then have them draw a picture of the good things they will put inside their head when confronted with an evil thought or picture.

If you can’t protect your children from ever seeing anything bad or evil, you CAN teach them what to do. And that’s the best protection you can give them.