Raising a Generation with an Elijah Worldview

I started blogging for several reasons.  For one, I wanted to practice writing.  Nothing fancy, just the simple act of putting ideas into coherent sentences.  Secondly, and more importantly, I wanted to learn to communicate well the message I believe the Lord is working in me.    I may  not be a forerunner in the way I thought I would be before I had children, but He is giving me a different message that I believe will also help prepare the way for His return.    Most of my posts up until this point have been the former.  This one is my first shot at the latter.  I am telling you this to ask for you help.  Please challenge me, push me on points that I haven’t thought through well, tell me where my language is muddy and incoherent.  This is a learning experience for me, so I invite your feedback.  

I almost never put my children in front of the TV.  There are multiple reasons why but, it all started when Daniel was only a couple months old.  Someone had given me a Baby Einstein DVD, and I was really craving some ”me” time so I put it on to see if he would watch it.  I had heard that children are mesmerized by these things, and my son was no different.  He was immediately captivated by it.  I sat down to watch a few minutes of it, and this thought came to my spirit…this is why children don’t see in the Spirit; they are fascinated by other things. 

Even before Daniel was born, I felt like he was going to have a prophetic annointing that would allow him to see things in the spirit, so I have been  zealous about protecting his eye gates for as long as it is my responsibility.  This little experience with the Baby Einstein DVD was the beginning of a journey I feel like the Lord is taking me on to see the detriment of abandoning our children to mass media entertainment. 

By putting our children infront of the TV so that we can do a load of laundry, cook dinner, clean the house, read a magazine, take a bubble bath, whatever, we are training them to love the immediate gratification and stimulation that TV provides.    I know this first hand.  I love to watch TV.  Nothing allows me to disengage and check out from reality like sitting down and wasting a few hours in front of the TV.   Hence why we don’t have one in our house.  I could easily waste my days away if the option was available to me.  When given the option between immediate pleasure and quieting our spirits to wait for an unseen God, most people will choose the  former.  I don’t want to train my children to be captivated by the immediate entertainment that television gives them, only to try to retrain them when the are “old enough” that ultimate pleasure will be found only in Jesus.  If Jesus wants to come to them in a dream or show them something in the spirit, I don’t want their little minds to be too cluttered with what they saw on TV to percieve His gift. 

The second reason I feel zealous about keeping my children away from the clutches of mass media is because I want their worldview to be shaped by the truths of the Kingdom of God, not today’s culture.  I heard Lou Engle say something once about raising children with an “Elijah worldview”.  That phrase put language to what I feel like the Lord is putting in my heart.  Daniel (the biblical character, not my son) did not decide the day he was taken into captivity that he loved God and didn’t want to defile himself.  He was raised to believe the truths of God more than what the culture around him was saying. 

Taking in large amounts of media, whether we are aware of it or not, influences how we see the world.  When I was young, my parents wouldn’t let me watch Beverly Hills 90210 and I was furious.  You can only imagine what it does to the social standing of a sixth grader when everyone is talking about what happened to Dylan and Kelly last night and you are clueless.  I didn’t understand at the time that my mom didn’t want me to think it was okay to sleep around, therefore  she didn’t want to allow me to fill my mind with and idolize those who did so so nonchalantly.   Mom, if you are reading this, I now acknowledge that you were wiser than me.  Thanks for looking out for me.   

Here however is where I would probably diverge from the majority of American Christians.  Not only do I not want my children watching immorality on TV, I also don’t want their realities shaped by anything that doesn’t line up with the reality of the Kingdom; this would include most of what is on TV.  For example, lets assume there was a romantic comedy that contained no immorality (I think you would be hard pressed to find one, but maybe one aimed at preteen girls)  Although there is nothing overtly morally wrong with this movie, my guess is it presents love in a way that is totally contrary to how God views love.  Real love involves self-sacrifice.  Not the ”I am going to risk my life/reputation/standard of living in order to win your heart” kind of sacrifice.  This typical Hollywood portrayal of self-sacrifice is ultimately based in selfishness:  you make me feel a certain way and therefore I will fight for your heart, because I want to keep feeling this way.  Real love is when you offer me nothing (even a good feeling) and yet I still lay down my life for you.   Young girls grow up indoctrinated with a false idea of what love is going to feel like, and when their husbands don’t constantly make them feel that way, they assume that their husbands don’t “really” love them and therefore they are free to go find someone who does.  Hence the astronomical divorce rate.  We have forgotten what Jesus showed us love would look like and wholeheartedly bought the lie that the media has sold us. 

Another lie that I think is poisonous to our children is the media portrayal of what being a teenager should be like.  I grew up watching Saved by the Bell like it was a religion.  It was a totally clean show, but it propagated the idea that being a teenager should be all about having fun with my friends, hanging out, going to parties, etc.  What if Mary would have had that worldview?  Would Daniel or Joseph have been able to carry their hearts so well in captivity if they were living this way prior to being enslaved?  Don’t get me wrong, I want my children to have fun sometimes, but I don’t want them to wait until they are 20 to experience Jesus in a profound way. 

If I want my boys to live like Elijah lived and carry their hearts the way John the Baptist carried his, I must feed them the spiritual food that they ate.    I don’t want to enslave them to false ways of thinking so I can have a little more “me” time. 

Wow that was long.  I am sure there is a more succinct way to say that.  If you were committed enough to read the whole thing, tell me what you think.