By Rev. Dr. Chris Surber

It’s hard growing up. It’s harder when you are not protected from the ugly influences in life. It’s even harder when you are not protected and also are actively infected with thoughts and ideas that poison your soul.

Let me give you an example. Recently I stood in line behind a young lady and a couple of small children at a local convenience store. For some reason, I noticed how cute the little girl was and how sharply alert was the little boy had. He seemed to be keenly aware of everything around him. I paid for my items and walked out of the store just behind them.

What came next should have shocked me, but because I’ve been desensitized in this bankrupt culture, it just saddened me. That young lady and the two little children climbed into a car that had music — well, something like music — blasting into the air with the vilest profanities imaginable. The lyrics to the song were explicitly sexual and bluntly wicked.

The man who awaited this young lady and these two children wasn’t embarrassed about the lyrics. He had no shame. He didn’t turn the music down once the children got into the car. He just continued to bounce his head to the beat with a smug air about him.

Growing up is hard. It’s even harder when the adults in your life don’t protect your mind and heart from ugliness and vileness.

We are supposed to protect and nurture the children in our lives, not poison a little girl’s heart with the notion that she is a sex object from early childhood. We are not supposed to set an example for a little boy that someday he should denigrate the worth of his sister’s peers by sexually objectifying them.

Children’s hearts are canvases upon which society paints a portrait of that child’s future. They are soft stones upon which every adult in their life chisels and shapes the kind of person they will become.

The greatest gift God gives anyone is to entrust them with influence in a child’s life. The calling of adults in the lives of children is to inspire dreams in their hearts and engage their imaginations to the wonders of who they can become.

Children learn what they observe and become what is modeled in front of them. The Bible tells us “Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.” (Proverbs 22:6)

Children are like time machines. They take the best and the worst parts of us into the future. What will we send with them into tomorrow?

Growing up is hard enough. Our kids don’t stand a chance if, instead of training them by example and guarding what gets into their hearts, we poison them with the refuse of denigrating, belittling and demeaning entertainment and ideas.

Chris Surber is pastor of Cypress Chapel Christian Church in Suffolk. Visit his website at www.chrissurber.com.