Protect Our Children’s Minds: ‘Think on These Things’
It only took a few seconds for my world to unravel.
My father has a great aptitude for study and is a self-taught everything from editor to theologian. Books, newspapers and magazines were always being perused in our house. My brother and sisters and I are all avid readers because we saw Mum and Dad model it. For a time Dad subscribed to a monthly magazine about the history of England in the Middle Ages. I must have been about eight years old. Castles, knights and princesses were right up my alley so I loved looking at each issue of the magazine when it arrived. Unfortunately, one issue was about torture depicted in medieval drawings. I opened the magazine and there spread before me, reproduced in full colour, were horrific illustrations. It’s not called the dark ages for nothing. One look and I was plagued with nightmares for years. When Dad saw it he threw it in the fire. But I didn’t tell him I had already seen it, because I thought I’d be in trouble for looking, and that lie of the devil kept me trapped in fear. It took years for me to combat the depression that descended on me as a day drew to a close and darkness fell. As a volunteer in Kid’s Church, whenever there was an opportunity to pray for children suffering nightmares I’d grab it, because I understood the terror they were experiencing.
Children Need Our Help!
To this day I’m careful about what I see but I’m shocked at what children not only see, but interact with, especially in the fantasy genre. They are visually exposed to more, from a younger age and from a plethora of sources, not only horror but sexual content, too. Children need our help! They need to be trained in what they see, listen to and think about, so they are protected. Even seemingly accidental exposure to evil things (which happened to me) is actually part of the devil’s scheme to destroy their lives using fear, uncertainty and desensitization.
What You Can Do!
As part of a quest to commit more Scripture to memory, I recently learned Philippians 4:8 using simple illustrations to help me. It made the verse, which has a list of things in a specific order, easy to recall. I decided to turn it into a lesson teaching children the importance of thinking about things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely and of a good report! And about the person who has all these qualities. Jesus!
What children think about becomes what they say. What they say becomes what they do. What they do becomes habit and that determines character. I pray this lesson, ‘Think on These Things’ will help you and the children in your care.
Find the lesson here: https://cooeekidsministry.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Think-On-These-Things.pdf
Read my blog ‘Learning by Heart: The Benefits of Teaching Memory Verses’ here: https://cooeekidsministry.com.au/learning-by-heart-the-benefits-of-teaching-memory-verses/