An explanation of topics for a dialogue with young people; topics where young people have to deal with in their lives, with support of Scripture.
What is the best gift that people can get?
The social status or regard to have a luxurious home?
To be seen in an expensive tough car or to wear exclusive clothing?
NKJV (1John 2: 15-16) 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–is not of the Father but is of the world.
Not showing off the means of existence, but children are the most precious gift that is entrusted to parents.
However, children are not a possession and there is probably nothing more difficult than raising children, every parent tries to do well to the best of his knowledge.
But difficult challenges occur in the lives of young people.
It all started with the blessing of the first people:
NKJV (Genesis 1:28) 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it;….
Children are and remain the property of the Creator:
NKJV (Psalms 127: 3) 3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Or as God (YHWH) explained it to the prophet Jeremiah:
NKJV (Jeremiah 1: 5) 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you;…
What a privilege has a child that can grow up in a Christian family, where love and Christian care determine the upbringing. Grandparents are also happy with their grandchildren:
NKJV (Proverbs 17: 6) 6 Children’s children are the crown of old men, And the glory of children is their father.
As parents, you get children during a temporary life phase, you bring up the children, but in the next phase to maturity, you have to let them go slowly.
The theme of this writing is; The care for young people and the influence of social media and online games.
Parents can now find a lot of literature or information to raise their children.
Young people of nowadays are called the offspring of the ’68 generation. Young people in 1968 argued with protest demonstrations throughout the Western world against social injustice such as the Vietnam War. It was the generation of Woodstock (1969), the flower power, the free sex, communes and the first experiments with drugs. Much of the ideas of the socialist movements came from the Frankfurter Schule, with their slogan ‘Make love not war’.
(See: Messiah 5. The Promised Messiah https://www.dojc.nl/?p=4470&lang=en)
Children were allowed to figure out for themselves how they wanted things, including their (sexual) relationships.
This generation of children are now adults and can educate their children less good because they have not had a good example themselves.
Many young parents tend to laugh with everything their children do.
But God does not overlook the foolishness of a generation:
NKJV (Numbers 14:18) 18 ‘The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’
This series only deals with educational matters that can be found in Scripture, to introduce our youth to Christian principles and to guide them in these to adulthood.
We as parents like to take Jesus as an example, Jesus was interested in young children:
NKJV (Mark 9:37) 37 “Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.”
Children resemble their parents, they have received their hereditary characteristics directly from their parents during their conception.
Sometimes the child looks like the mother, sometimes like the father. Sometimes with the same characteristics, sometimes different. But children have innate characteristics such as temperament, which is why it can sometimes clash.
Parents like it, when their children have easy characteristics, when quickly getting angry, they do not like that.
There is, however, a big difference between innate characteristics and learned characteristics such as yelling or screaming.
From the Scriptures, children are asked to listen to their parents:
NKJV (Proverbs 23: 22-25) 22 Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old. 23 Buy the truth, and do not sell it, Also wisdom and instruction and understanding. 24 The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who begets a wise child will delight in him. 25 Let your father and your mother be glad, And let her who bore you rejoice.
Regularity
The Jewish people, the Jewish adults, were at that time already given rules and agreements, the stone tablets with the ten commandments (Exodus 20: 1-17) and the law of Moses in the Torah, which are the first 5 books of the Bible. (Genesis up to and including Deuteronomy).
And also adult Christians were given rules and agreements:
NKJV (Colossians 3: 8-13) 8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. 12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
Also our young people need rules and structure to indicate their limits.
Children even like it when you set limits. If you do not dare to say ‘no’ or to act, you will forfeit their respect.
Christian parents care for their children; going to bed on time, eating in time, sitting together at the table, a short prayer (Matthew 6: 7), discussing the day, brushing teeth, etc.
In short, regular family routines and it is therefore not recommended for the family routines that each one separately sits down for the TV with a plate.
It is a question of habits, as with the first Christian communities:
CEB (Acts 2:46) 46 Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity.
There is now a generation of young parents, who have had few rules themselves and do not know how to apply these to their own children.
Fortunately, by far not to all of them.
However, the current generation of children is, on average, more pampered and – to name an example – may sleep very often with mom and dad in bed.
These young families usually have 2 jobs, both husband as wife have a job.
They have a hectic life and they want to experience everything and keep up everything, family parties, their friends, sport, going out, company parties, vacation with friends, weekends away.
Many parents expect that playgroups, day nurseries and schools straighten out their children’s concerns.
However, parents are and always remain liable and responsible.
Some parents are constantly interfering with their children. Others spend too little care:
NKJV (1 Timothy 5: 8) 8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Some children become so little involved in the housekeeping and cleaning of their own room, that they even are no longer able to clean or brush.
That’s why many young parents have it so difficult, they cannot handle it very well.
Children are also getting little rest this way and not a safe and stable family rhythm.
According to Scripture, there must be rest in the families, otherwise the child becomes the proverbial ‘child of the bill’:
NKJV (1 Timothy 2: 1-2) 1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.
And Jesus is a beacon for us to receive rest:
NKJV (Matthew 11: 28-29) 28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Punishing and rewarding
Fortunately, there are still many young and consequent Christian parents.
Below, a number of situations are described and how these parents react to these;
Small children of 2-3 years can sometimes freak out completely with shrieking or annoying behavior.
Many consequent parents have given these little ones in such a situation a tap against the diaper / buttocks, with a clear explanation that it must be finished now.
Toddlers are treated differently, they are taken by their arm by such parents and are told; ‘go inside’ or ‘sit here’ and then they are told: ‘I do not like that’.
The toddlers feel by their parent’s voice that they are angry.
After a cooling off period and a short stay, they are allowed to play further.
To schoolchildren, other punishments apply, such as not being allowed to watch TV.
In puberty, children are often sent to their rooms by such parents.
But always with a clear explanation why punishment is given:
NKJV (Hebrews 12: 6-7) 6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” 7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
Children know when their parents are consequent and therefore have difficulty with their disapproval. But what is then meant by:
NKJV (Proverbs 23: 13-14) 13 Do not withhold correction from a child, For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. 14 You shall beat him with a rod, And deliver his soul from hell.
The described punishment in this Scripture has sometimes been literally applied.
With stripes on the body of the child, until bleeding.
What these parents have forgotten is, that this Scripture was written at a time when the herding of goats and sheep was general. Sheep and goats were led with a stick or staff.
With a tap of a stick the cattle was corrected, that was a familiar theme for the Jews.
The admonition ‘beat with a stick’ is sporadically a tap again the diaper / buttocks for entire little ones, but to us, we believe that for infants and the older kids it is meant to be a metaphor, meant as a correction, explained verbally, seriously and clearly.
This is also supported by Proverbs 13:24 :
CEB (Proverbs 13:24) 24 Those who withhold the rod hate their children, but the one who loves them applies discipline.
There is an admonition in this Scripture for those, who love their child, so here too the stick is the verbal exhortation that feels as if a stick is being used, it hurts.
Never a real stick, there is not 1 example to be found in Scripture where children are punished with a stick out of love.
It is meant as it is written in Isaiah, with the rod or stick of the mouth:
NKJV (Isaiah 11: 4) 4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
Jesus compares the faith in His words with the receptivity and loving admonition as of young children:
NKJV(Matthew 18: 3-5) 3 and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.
Or as Paul writes:
NKJV (2 Timothy 3:16) 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
A method that often is used in Scripture instead of punishment, is teaching or rewarding:
NKJV (Ephesians 6: 1-4) 1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: 3 “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” 4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
Jesus told us a nice parable about a lost sheep.
Now this parable is about someone who has started to put faith in Jesus words again, but as parents you can also tell this parable to your children ‘in a different way’, how happy parents are when they finally have found their child, that panicked, because the child had lost his parents out of sight:
NKJV (Luke 15: 4-5) 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
Wisdom
When Solomon, the son of King David, in a dream of God (YHWH) was allowed to make a wish to choose whatever he wanted, the young man Solomon chose for wisdom:
NKJV (1Kings 3: 5,9,11-12) 5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask! What shall I give you?”… . 9 Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”… 11 Then God said to him: “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, 12 behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you.
NKJV (1Kings 4: 29-32) 29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore. 30 Thus Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 For he was wiser than all men–than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. 32 He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five.
Below are some of Solomon’s Proverbs that speak about the relationship between sons and daughters with their parents, Proverbs, provided with advice and warnings:
NKJV(Proverbs 1: 1-4) 1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: 2 To know wisdom and instruction, To perceive the words of understanding, 3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, Justice, judgment, and equity; 4 To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion.
NKJV (Proverbs 3: 11-12) 11 My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor detest His correction; 12 For whom the Lord loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights. 1 My son, do not reject the admonition of the Lord, and have no aversion to His punishment. 12 For the Lord punishes whom He loves, as a father does with the son he is favored.
NKJV (Proverbs 6: 20-22) 20 My son, keep your father’s command, And do not forsake the law of your mother. 21 Bind them continually upon your heart; Tie them around your neck. 22 When you roam, they will lead you; When you sleep, they will keep you; And when you awake, they will speak with you.
NKJV (Proverbs 15: 5) 5 A fool despises his father’s instruction, But he who receives correction is prudent.
NKJV (Proverbs 23:22) 22 Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old.
NKJV (Proverbs 23:25) 25 Let your father and your mother be glad, And let her who bore you rejoice.
Encouraging children gives them courage and energy:
NKJV (Proverbs 15:23) 23 A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, And a word spoken in due season, how good it is!
NKJV (Proverbs 16:24) 24 Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.
NKJV (Proverbs 25:11) 11 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold In settings of silver.
Games and Internet
Young children start with simple games, which become more and more complicated. From solitaire games with marbles or cards such as ‘Candy Crush’ and ‘Pyramid Solitaire’ to building cities such as ‘Minecraft’ or extending a farm ‘Hay’ to aggressive Internet games with multiple players online such as ‘World of Warcraft’.
With most games, it is the intention to pull some over the line to buy something with real money, which gives an advantage in the game. That is part of their earnings model.
These online games have a strong competition element.
A large number of games – including online games such as ‘World of Warcraft’ – are unsuitable for Christian youth because of the violence with its bloody scenes and zombies or other idolatry.
The Scriptures warn our young people to be vigilant for the content of these games:
NKJV (1 John 5:21) 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols…
Young people, tablets and smartphones
Young people without a smartphone are hardly to find in the West; 96% of young people are in possession of a smartphone. They consider a tablet and a smartphone important.
As they age, the social media also belong to their daily pattern.
WhatsApp is widely used to chat among each other or in groups.
Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat are still growing among young people.
But what is the reality?
The developers of new games and apps do not make these with a pedagogical or educational purpose and they have not been tested by educationalists.
Former engineers and designers of apps see the influence of their work and strike alarm:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/04/technology/early-facebook-google-employees-fight-tech.html
They distance themselves from this technology that is based on consuming and not on creativity.
Andrew Keen describes in his book, ‘How to fix the future’, that the autonomy of young people is being undermined to make decisions.
Justin Rosenstein – designer of the like button on Facebook – notes that this technology provides dopamine for the brain, it is addictive.
These kinds of apps and attributes are made to seduce.
A school in Silicon Valley has focused on making something themselves, developing social skills, a withdrawal from the reflex, to regularly grab the smartphone.
Young people realize that too: ‘I wish I did not do that, I wish I could talk to people’
Social media
Social media are very popular among young people.
Even more than half of the young people are active on both Snapchat and Instagram.
Snapchat is an app for your smartphone where you can send photos, videos and messages. With Snapchat you can edit photos with attributes and place flashy text. The images that you send will disappear after a few seconds. Because the photos appear only a certain number of seconds, you can decide to take a screenshot of the photo so that you can save it.
Instagram is an app that lets you edit and share photos. With Instagram you follow the messages from others.
When you yourself are followed by salesmen, you are also asked to follow them, with the aim of receiving their offers and products.
Interest in Facebook is decreasing among young people, because the parents also regularly look at there.
WhatsApp is the general means of communication, for sending text messages, sound recordings or videos to a person or group. Calling and video conferencing is also possible with WhatsApp, just as with Skype.
What young people also like, is watching movies on YouTube, especially when they are uploaded by peers or have hilarious content.
Applications like Facebook change society in taking responsibility.
Like introducing the so-called ‘Fake News’.
Large Internet companies such as Facebook/Instagram and Google/YouTube work with algorithms, that are formulas and agreements for what is shown in the search results, in which order as with Google and what is censored, so what they do not want commercially or what they find politically not right. In any case, it is not the most relevant representation and by their manipulation they take away the freedom of thought.
In this way, young people do not get a clear view of world affairs, but a distorted view.
PragerU: Who Will Google Silence Next:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvG5I0vU-bc&feature=youtu.be
The market value or stock value of these parties indicates how much the information of the user’s yields.
Young people often think that they can share their affairs anonymously with their friends on these sites, nothing is less true. Everything is observed and documented.
In fact, they know the thoughts of the persons through the message traffic.
The users are the products from which they earn money.
It is not the algorithms that provide their insight, but the additions of these data and the things that are done with these data without the users knowing.
Also the demand robots are on the rise, Amazon with Alexa, Apple with Siri and Google with Google.
On every subject they give extensive answers, but to questions like: “Who is Jesus Christ?”, these bots or robots give doubtful answers:
http://www.faithwire.com/2017/11/29/what-really-happens-when-you-ask-alexa-who-is-the-lord-jesus-christ/ (Amazon)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF7mkyd-Wm4 (Google)
Good feeling
Many girls get a good feeling when their messages are liked or shared on the Social media. Girls also find it annoying and become more restless than boys when they cannot go online. They are more often afraid that they will miss something.
Nevertheless, virtually all young people find personal contact more important than contact via Social media. In fact, young people have to learn to deal with each other again.
It is good for people to be connected to each other, with their social skills:
NKJV (1 Peter 3: 8) 8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
Adverse effects
Almost half of the young people acknowledge that social media have negative consequences for their lives. For example, they sleep worse at night, they cannot concentrate as well and their results at school decline. A small group even admits that they have a worse contact with family and friends thanks to the Social media.
According to the Media, hospitals are flooded with young people with sleep complaints, with the smartphone as the culprit.
This is mainly caused by the use of mobile phones in the bedroom.
Once in a while checking your smartphone, when you wake up for a moment or when you cannot get to sleep. The smartphone beeps, receives a message again.
Almost all young people do it, but it is exhausting. Often only four hours of sleep.
Sometimes months in a row, resulting in school absenteeism. Boys are often involved in gaming. Girls often with WhatsApp’s.
Neurologist and sleep expert Hans Hamburger has his practice in Amsterdam. “I also treat young people with these complaints almost every day”, he told RTL Nieuws. “It is the tip of the iceberg.”
According to Harold Kuepers, trendwatcher of lifestyleweblog Stylecowboys, the renunciation of the smartphone is a result of the ‘message terror’ of the devices. “The smartphone constantly demands attention. Of course, you can turn off all those sounds, but those messages will keep on coming on your screen. We are at the height of what we can endure. People want peace and with a smartphone you never have peace. ”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/internet-social-media-leaving-young-8864897
The light of the smartphones
According to the doctors, the complaints are mainly caused by the light of the mobile phones. Hamburger explains: “Because of the light coming from the screen in the eyes, the brains get a signal that you have to stay awake.”
“It may be that a high school student only falls asleep at two or three o’clock, while he has to be back in school at half past nine. Then he by far does not get the eight to nine hours of sleep a night he needs.”
You can compare this best with jet lag.
Ban the smartphone out of the bedroom, is the advice of the doctors.
- In the morning not good or not able to stand up
- Drowsy, unconcentrated impression
- Not being able to sleep in the evening
- Always tired
- Irritable, delayed reactions
- Deteriorated school performance
A study by King’s College London shows that just having such a device in the bedroom is sufficient for a negative effect on the night’s sleep.
Although the investigation does not show that the devices are the cause of sleep problems, the scientists advise not to use the smartphone or tablet too much in the evening.
The results of the study are published in JAMA Pediatrics:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2571467
Smartphone addiction
The New York Times noticed the trend in the United States earlier. Bestselling author Jonathan Safran Foer told in that newspaper how the smartphone controlled his life. “At one point I was looking at my smartphone while I was doing my children in the bath,” Safran Foer said.
Elsbeth Urbani from Leiden put a thick line through her 250 Facebook and 20 WhatsApp friends a few months ago. “Now I send tickets and letters. Then you think before you say something. ”
A small group of young people swears the continuously Facebooking and WhatsApping off.
They opt for a simple cellphone and are especially tired of the Social media.
‘There is no smartphone in my life anymore. Life without is so relaxed. A liberation.’
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/21/does-quitting-social-media-make-you-happier-yes-say-young-people-doing-it
Even investors want the software of the smartphone to be changed because of the smartphone addiction.
Large investors have appealed to Apple to develop software that limits the time for how long children can use their smartphone:
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42608822
Microtargeting
Microtargeting is the way to apply advertising messages for every person individual.
If you do a query for a new vacuum cleaner, then all media show vacuum cleaners to you, intended only for you personally.
It is a very big growth market, to reach buyers with microtargeting and to manipulate – political – opinions with the use of Big Data:
https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/social-media-big-data-microtargeting-revolutionized-political-marketing.aspx
With internet, our young people become involved in a forest of interested parties:
NKJV (Matthew 10:16) 16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
Make choices
Ben, 21, Surrey: ‘I have a much more positive mindset now’
(see the previously cited URL: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/21/does-quitting-social-media-make-you-happier-yes-say-young-people-doing-it)
I made a New Year resolution to cut down on my social media use. After doing this I started to ask, why am I using it at all? That’s why I’ve quit various platforms over the past year: Snapchat in November and Facebook in June. I’ve never really had WhatsApp or Twitter. I mainly used Facebook at university, for organizing events and meet-ups, but I’ve gradually started to realize how pervasive it is. I also feel uncomfortable with the amount of time I used to spend on it.
I’ve always found social media to be an environment in which people constantly seek attention and validation through one-upping people’s comments, and boasting over likes and retweets.
I didn’t find it hard to quit and, after a while, contacting people through other means became the norm. People completely respect my not being on social media, and some wish they could do it too. Since I left, I’ve spoken to people about it and that’s convinced them to do the same.
We’ve not needed social media for thousands of years and now it feels like people think your life is over if you don’t have it, which is ridiculous.
Have DISCUSSIONS with your children
Parents, how important is it to make time free with the children for a discussion about Social media. About the use of tablet and smartphone and what that does with a vulnerable generation.
Discus the advice of doctors that a tablet or smartphone does not belong in the bedroom.
Discus the depraved use of online games in particular.
Discus the addiction of Social media.
Always ask the children for the solution in this dialogue.
What would you … How would you … How can we solve this together … What can we agree…
Have a patient ear, it does not have to be perfectly arranged at once.
To quote again the Proverbs of the wise Solomon:
NKJV (Proverbs 14:29) 29 He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, But he who is impulsive exalts folly.
NKJV (Proverbs 18:13) 13 He who answers a matter before he hears it, It is folly and shame to him.
NKJV (Proverbs 15:22) 22 Without counsel, plans go awry, But in the multitude of counselors they are established.
You can also mention in this discussion how important it is to play outside with other children, to make something together or play a game together, so developing social skills.
Or quote the example from Proverbs, which in our view describes Jesus as a child in heaven:
NKJV (Proverbs 8: 22-31) 22 “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. 23 I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth. 24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, When there were no fountains abounding with water. 25 Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills, I was brought forth; 26 While as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, Or the primeval dust of the world. 27 When He prepared the heavens, I was there, When He drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28 When He established the clouds above, When He strengthened the fountains of the deep, 29 When He assigned to the sea its limit, So that the waters would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth, 30 Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him, 31 Rejoicing in His inhabited world, And my delight was with the sons of men.
Finally:
What is going on with our generation of young people?
For many young people, internet is anonymity and a flight from loneliness.
For others it is a confirmation to be popular, to belong.
Still other young people want to excel in a kind of competition.
Parents have a duty to guide their children in this difficult process of Social Media:
NKJV (2 Corinthians 12:14) 14 Now for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be burdensome to you; for I do not seek yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.
But Christian parents also have a duty to tell their children about their Creator and His particularly beautiful works of creation and also about the intentions of our God (YHWH):
NKJV (Deuteronomy 6: 7) 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
Parents, in Scripture you are asked to encourage your children to do the right things:
NKJV (1 Thessalonians 2:11) 11 as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children,
Give your children Christian education in all dignity:
ESV (1 Timothy 3: 4) 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive,
Young people, honor your parents:
NKJV (Proverbs 1: 8-9) 8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, 9 for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.
Christian youths shine like lights in the world:
NKJV (Philippians 2: 14-15) 14 Do all things without grumbling or questioning, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,…
Till so far this part about the care for young people and the influence of the Social media. In the next part, part 2, we will continue with the care for young people and the influence of capital/money and the spending habits.