Should we protect or shelter our children? Everybody has a different opinion on this, and we’d have to begin with defining terms. What do we mean by protect or shelter? I’m just going to say that sheltering is never a bad thing in the Bible that I can find. Smothering isn’t so great, but the difference between the two is something nobody can decide for somebody else.
Maybe we need to ask what it is we should or should not be protecting them from?
We’re conservative parents, and we do work at guarding our children from unwholesome influences when they are younger, we release bit by bit as they grow older. But we also know that unwholesome influences do not only come from outside. If we lived in a jungle with no influences but our Bible and each other, we would still have to guard against sinful attitudes and actions because human beings are simply far from perfect. Nobody has to teach us to be mean, ugly, selfish, self-centered, or prideful. Most of us figure this out all by ourselves distressingly early in life.
What we do need to guard against are the influences that make us complacent in our sin.
We also need to guard against those influences that appeal primarily and sometimes only to the flesh.
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My children are all now grown, and we are starting with the grandkids. I wish I had raised my children to be more “seperate and apart”. I was not raised in a “church going believing” family. I didn’t realize how important that was and how much of a difference it would make. That is a big regret of mine. I think of it most weeks when I sit on my pew alone with my GrandBoy.
Society in general seems to focus on protecting children physically but emotionally or mentally.
People put little girls in clothing (even baby bibs!) that says “Sexy” or “Flirt,” but they don’t let their school-aged kids walk a few blocks to school, a friend’s house, or the library because a “predator” might snatch them.
Parents worry about bullying in the schools, but they don’t worry about the violence their children are exposed to via TV, movies, and video games.
Recently a pair of parents objected to their 4 and 8 year-old sons seeing an in flight movie that was a PG-13 movie that contained sexual content and violence. (One of the Alex Cross movies) They say that they asked the staff to turn off the screen in front of their seats or change the movie, and some of the other passengers agreed it wasn’t suitable for kids and said they wouldn’t mind if it was turned off. Not only did the staff refuse, but the plane was diverted for “security reasons” and the family questioned by law enforcement personnel. I saw a news headline that referred to these parents as “prudes.” Yet if these same parents had allowed the 4 and 8-year olds to wait in the car while they paid for gas, or go to a local park together, but without an adult, they would be called neglectful and risk a police of CPS investigation.
More than one person has come into my bookstore and mentioned that their teen daughter really liked “50 Shades of Grey.”
The word NOT should be before “emotionally”
well, i can attest to the truth of this, but not only because i live in the jungle with my bible and a whole bunch of other jungle people (it’s not THAT primitive, anyway).
sin’s influence is extremely far-reaching. it often surfaces from the very depths of our own souls, all the while we ourselves were completely unaware of its presence…
oh for a Saviour! thanks be to GOD he sent one!
and as for sheltering. i agree. shelter not smother. but sometimes we mess that up too. so, we pray. we do our best. we love our kids and show them how our decisions are based on loving God, not fear or just a boring list of rules.