Parents, if you weren’t aware that you are engaged in a battle with the world for the hearts and minds of your little children, it should have become crystal clear to you the moment the #GiveElsaAGirlfriend hashtag surfaced. For too long we have been living in a sort of twilight sleep, telling ourselves that the culture around us is benign. That it’s not so bad for our kids to listen to that music or watch those TV shows. That funny movies are, of course, going to have some off-color stuff in them. But, honestly, our kids will hear worse than this at school tomorrow. That cell phones aren’t a temptation to sin for our kids because THEY would NEVER look at things they shouldn’t.
And then one morning we wake up to a hashtag and we finally start to understand that everything about this culture is lined up in direct opposition to what the Bible teaches. What took us so long?
Things have changed, dear parents. The way we live has to change. Christianity is about to become the most radical mission we were ever a part of, if we’re doing it right. We aren’t culture warriors anymore–the culture is lost and we aren’t getting it back. But, our children are still ours. And, I propose that it’s going to take some radical reform in our homes in order to lead them in Christ’s way.
The hashtag isn’t really about Elsa. At least, that isn’t what should concern us, even if our house is filled with her (and ours is). It’s really just a symptom of the enormous, dark, devastating problem of a culture that has grown more and more convinced that the Bible isn’t true. So convinced, in fact, that the Bible really isn’t even a consideration anymore.
I’ll be surprised if Elsa actually ends up with a girlfriend. But, it’s only a matter of very little time before a gay princess emerges. Or until a character on a teen show on Nickelodeon is speaking against Christian beliefs the way they speak against racism or bullying. The dark, godless culture that our kids are growing up in is coming for them. The worst part is that it looks like love and acceptance, like kindness. Satan disguised as an angel of light.
So, how do we combat the coming darkness? How do we plant God’s word in our kids’ hearts? How do we make sure that our teachings take root and the culture’s lies don’t?
We have to live the truth.
We have to walk in love.
We have to be committed to living in opposition to a culture that lives in opposition to Christ.
I’m not talking boycotts or protests. I’m talking about living what we say we believe. I’m talking about examining what kind of influences we allow to stream into our homes. And, I’m talking about having the courage to make some radical changes in our lives and our kids’ lives. What will it take? Getting rid of kids’ cell phones, maybe. Getting rid of TV? Saying no more often. Being in our kids’ business. Teaching theology at home. Learning the why behind what we believe and teaching it to our kids.
Let’s stop allowing a godless culture to yell its “truth” at our kids all day while we barely croak out a whisper about Jesus Christ and His Truth. I don’t know if Elsa will get a girlfriend, but it doesn’t really matter. The next princess will. What this hashtag shows us is that we have been fooling ourselves for too long about this world’s intentions for our kids. We buried our heads in the sand until one day, we looked up and wordly wisdom was gunning for our four year old Elsa fanatics. The battle for the culture is over. But, the battle for our kids’ hearts and minds and very souls is just getting started. How far will we go to show our kids the foolishness of this world and the wisdom of our good God? I hope we don’t care more about cell phones and pop culture and funny movies than we care about our kids’ knowledge of Christ. Radical changes need to be made. In our habits. In our hearts. In our homes. If we don’t teach our kids the truth of the gospel, if we don’t show them that sin is bad for them and that Christ’s way is the best way, then this world will teach them the opposite. The culture isn’t a friend that helps us reinforce the truth anymore. It’s a direct enemy of the Truth. And, our knowledge of that reality needs to start showing up in our parenting.
The battle for our kids is real. And, it’s raging, whether we admit it or not. Let it be known that our families live according to the truth of God’s word. And, as that idea gets more and more radical in a culture that hates God, let’s keep going, living lives that prove to our kids how serious we are about living according to His word. This battle isn’t about hating anyone. It isn’t about getting the last word or yelling louder or boycotting. It’s about living quiet lives that are truly dedicated to the Truth. It’s about loving people enough to show them what Christianity looks like, lived out in a hostile culture. It’s about refusing to compromise our families for the sake of entertainment or popularity or ease. We can be warriors and still be good neighbors and friends. But, we can’t afford to spend any more time trying to convince ourselves that the culture belongs to us. It’s over, dear Christians. But, the truth of God’s word is eternal. Cling to the truth, and anchor your family to it. In the coming days, it will make all the difference.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel–which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. Galatians 1:6-10
You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. Matthew 10:22
Thank you, Melissa.
Thanks for reading, Cheryl!
Melissa, I love ya dear sister. This is your best piece ever by far. I do very much hope you take me with all the grace I intend when I point out that somebody bearing a striking resemblance to myself and wearing my clothes has been saying this very thing for a long long time. in fact it has been one of my primary focuses of research and proclamation.
Pop culture, and the wicked entertainment empire that spiritually and morally lords over it with the full and enthusiastic embrace of it’s subjects, which subjects are just about everybody, is the eternally mortal enemy of our God and His Christ.
These masterpieces of pagan propaganda, packaged as masterpieces of story telling, sensory immersion and bombardment, are spectacularly effective on adults. Think about what they do to a young developing child whose PARENTS, whom they naturally trust with their very lives, themselves feed it to them. IN JESUS NAME God help us!!
I know I don’t always handle things as deftly as I should, but this was my point all along. I have permanent prints on my forehead from beating it on my keyboard while dealing with Christians over this and related topics.
My hat is off and I send big brotherly hugs to you and Chad. 🙂
I had a feeling you would like this one.
Excellent piece!
BTW, when I said “big brotherly hugs,” I mean hugs that are big. Not that I’m your big brother LOL!
It is sad that it has taken so.many.Christians. This long to realize this. Better late than never; however, my parents parted company with Disney back in the 90’s and started homeschooling us in Kindergarten back in the 80’s because the world’s agenda didn’t align with God’s word way back then. The pop culture, tv/movie agendas, and anti-God indoctrination of public schools was prevalent and might I even say blatantly obvious way back then. It is sad to see Christians take this long to see that MOST of what goes on in our day and age WON’T be things believers of Jesus can participate in, however, so many home ARE full of Disney and the world’s garbage. Sadly they will have to choose to look different, ask for forgiveness from God and their kiddos, and get back on the straight and narrow. It is okay look/act different, not only okay but needed, to show the world we are set apart as God’s children! Boycotts and rallies are great, it may take being super uncomfortable means to stand for truth and friendships may be lost over taking a stand for Christ, but I love my children and others too much to not speak the truth and have souls come to the Savior.
Hello, my name is Kay, and I suffer from clinical depression. My depression is caused by a lack of faith in the future of humanity. I am an empath and I feel the pain of the world as my pain. I want you to know that it’s people like you who make me want to just end it all and get it over with. Because I know that whatever God awaits me out there in the void, it is not your God, because you have no God. You would not know God if you were to See him standing before you. There are many Gods out there, and none of them want us to delude our children into believing that the world is black and white, gay or straight, religious or heathen. What they want, if indeed they want anything from us at all, is for us to live together in our freedom, to respect one another’s differences, to stand United as one world of thinking human beings, capable of making our own decisions. This I believe is also what Jesus would have wanted, be him Son of God or simply a very wise and kind Man, he would not want us separated by our beliefs, but together, learning from each other and teaching each other to understand ourselves. You must realize that the book you cling to has led to a corruption of his intent. The Bible you claim to follow was written 2000 years ago by Humans, who in their arrogance and beliefs of Self superiority believed they had the right to try to speak for the truly wise, be they God or Man. I leave you now with this to think on, I ask only that you read my words, you need not embrace them, if you wish, I have simply laid down my belief, and am as stalwart in it as you are in yours. In the end, I am sure we are both wrong in our own ways, such as it is when one attempts to understand the mind of a God.
Hi, Kay. I’m so sorry to hear about your depression. I hope you’re getting professional help. If you really are feeling a sense of despair, please call the suicide prevention hotline at 1 (800) 273-8255 and talk to someone who is trained to help get you through.
God didn’t want us to fumble around in the dark and guess who he is and what he means. He had it recorded by people as they were carried by his spirit and then he diligently preserved that word through millennia of people and powers trying to destroy it. Let me ask this, how could God be loving if he didn’t clearly explain himself? Would a loving God have right and wrong actions (and don’t say you don’t believe in right or wrong because you argue that there is right and wrong indirectly in your response above) but not explain them or why they exist. How could God be loving if he didn’t explain in part who he was, what are the functions of the things he’s given us (relationships, logic, knowledge, senses). I strongly encourage you read the book of Romans and John carefully, and do some research on how the bible has been protected from destruction and change.
“If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!”
Well I don’t agree with your interpretation of the bible, so are you now under god’s curse?
Also, as a man in his early 20’s I can tell you first-hand that the style of parenting you recommend will lead to children with a narrow and ignorant view of the world. Don’t shelter your kids ‘to preserve their purity’ unless your goal is to create a clone with the exact same beliefs as you. Let them see different cultures and people and formulate their own opinions. If you teach them your religion they should be able to reject or question it if they so desire. After all they were given freedom of choice by god, right?
Every day it seems something likes this surfaces. Yesterday the Ft Worth Star Telegram had a cover story on the superintendent of schools in Ft Worth who has put in a non gender specific bathroom rule which he somehow feels will foster better, kinder atmosphere for learning. We must create alternatives and do it now. Referring back to your blog on the scary ark, I believe it’s time we start building arks again. Sam
As usual, you hit it right on the head. Thank you once again!
Right on! We do catechism every night that goes along with our doctrine, so our children know what we believe and why! Along with family worship!
Dear Kay, I understand where you are coming from…though I absolutely do believe in a supreme creator whom Esu (Jesus) only called “Father”, my traditional, mass media type ”Christian” faith was shaken to it’s core by an exponential movement that’s proving many of the Bible stories were directly forged and copied from the oldest language/tablets known to Mankind…The Sumerian Cuneiform Tablets, Tablets that LONG predate the languages of Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, the 3 languages in which the Bible was penned.
The stories essentially have the same cast of characters, events, same basic creation account as Genesis has, but has the ‘gods’ with the little ‘g’ making Mankind, not the supreme creator, with the first Man being named “Adama” (sound familiar??)…the many Biblical parallels are absolutely astonishing and cannot be denied, and even most theological students I’ve come into contact with in person and online are not taught this in their curriculum…why??
If the oldest language/tablets on the Planet is not taught in Theology, there’s obviously some enormous educational gap that needs to be filled here…But people are waking up, very fast…much love and healing to you and everyone else searching deeper into these sometimes slightly uncomfortable truths, and shut off mass media, Arena type Christian Tell-A-Vision ”programming” that mostly just scratch itching ears…begin with very erudite Mauro Biglino on youtube, cure your depression shortly, and set yourself free with the truth…it worked for me…I get it now…it all makes perfect sense now…our true origins, from the by far oldest language on Earth.
The cuneiform tablets were very openly discussed in the most basic Bible survey class at my Baptist university. Christians are not walking around in the dark about that as if it’s some secret that would destroy the faith, just shake the solid ground we thought we were walking on. Look for yourself at something, though–the Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ! May you be blessed by checking those out.
Great blog post! We are truly living in the last days and are in the midst of such apostasy and deception in the Church. So few churches and Christians will stand up against the left’s bully tactics. Thank you for your courageous stand to speak the truth! Stay strong, Sister! The devil won’t like this one.
This is very true. The biggest struggle is the balancing act “We can be warriors and still be good neighbors and friends.” but we have to keep forging, for our kids’ souls and ours too.
So true! This needs to be said over and over. Thanks Melissa. 🙂
Melissa says: “The battle for the culture is over. “
I agree with this too btw Melissa. I might qualify it by saying that THIS battle for the culture is over. We are under the judgement of the Lord our God. If the scriptures are taken seriously, it is not possible for anything to be clearer.
It will not be stopped by groovy and relevant cultural engagement. It will only be stopped when it has accomplished God’s purposes. I don’t blame the pagans. They’re doing what pagans are supposed to do. Be pagans.
It’s a worldly compromised church, with little salt and little light that has led the way. I made this a while back for my Facebook page for the sneering, eye rolling crowd who think people like me are… well. alarmist doomsayers 🙂
http://tiribulus.net/pix/pix4/5titanic.jpg
Melissa, we will never meet arms-touching-face-to-face in this life. But this I know -a living know- we have met because the less of me in me the more of HIM who restored us to HIMSELF is in me and you.
🙂 that long story to say, my heart loves you.
The more we live (as you say) the Gospel of CHRIST the more our offspring 9and those we come into contact with) will know the truth.
Basically I am saying, you are speaking Truth.
The more I am obedient, the less there will be of me, the less I’ll try to fix or condemn everyone else and …
I’ll stop by saying “those who are led by the Spirit they are the sons of GOD” so let us keep going on and Live as sons
And many Christians were saying this when the movie first came out. How the movie was full of the homosexual agenda. And most just blew it off. If you follow the story line the sister hids behind the door and just needs to come out? Let it go? Have you listen to all the words and innuendo through out it and really thought about what messages are there? It’s sad that that Christians have let it fill their homes and are only now speaking out when they see a hashtag. We need to be more discerning before we let it come into our homes before we see hashtags on social media. And speak up before then.
http://wellbehavedmormonwoman.blogspot.com/2014/02/movie-frozen-gay-homosexual-agenda.html
Wow! Good read. Thank you for standing up and reminding us that we have a huge responsibility when we become parents. Most of all Christian parents. May the Lord continue to use you and your writing to touch others and encourage them to be the men/women/parents that God designed them for.
Interesting comments on this one. It really comes down to whether you believe the Bible is true or have questions about the truthfulness of the Bible. Those who believe the Bible is true seem to agree. Those who don’t seem to lack the understanding of who the God of the Bible is, and therefore do not understand why those who believe the Bible would want to set a holiness standard for their children. Ironically in my house the decision to disengage the children from TV was more a consequence of bad attitudes and then a desire to continue the simple lifestyle. I think we can live in this world but not of it better when we pick and choose which aspects of the culture we want our children to engage in instead of the “everyone else is doing it” argument. Elsa is all over our house and Frozen is still listed on the movies the kids can watch. I doubt Disney will make her the first princess with a girlfriend, but I’m also sure one is probably coming in the future. If it is Elsa, I’ll have to have a conversation with the kids about why they cannot watch that movie in my house. As Christian parents this is just one of many uncomfortable conversations that we now have in our homes earlier than our parents may have been forced to have them with us. I know I had the homosexual conversation fairly early with my parents because of a situation we knew about when I was very young and because of the AIDS crisis that was going on back then. There comes a time when you have to teach your children that just because something is legal/accepted/seen as normal (even sometimes inside the church), it does not make it right and holy. Are we trying to please God or men? Are we taking a stand because it is right and holy or because we are afraid of being judged by those in the world or even in the church? We all fail in these areas, and we cannot be our child’s Holy Spirit. However we can create a household expectation of holiness and teach our children to follow those ways in hopes that when they leave the nest, the Holy Spirit has plenty of tools buried in their brains and hearts to remind them of the standard of holiness. Preparation for adult living, probably the second goal behind knowledge and acceptance of the gospel, has to be planned and thought out by parents even in the early years. I don’t boycott, but I do limit exposure and often have the teachable moment when they are exposed to something and it affects their beliefs or behavior.
Beautifully written, thank you.
Excellent….Keep up the good work….
Thank you for speaking the truth!!
I want to get in on this so bad! Wonder what super Godly Guy would say.
I agree that the American culture is now decidedly anti-Christian, but why the hopelessness that it can never return to a majority of citizens truly honoring Christ and thereby redeeming the culture? We have had great awakenings in this country before and history instructs us with powerful examples of radical Christians redeeming corrupt national cultures: see St. Patrick in pagan Ireland and William Wilberforce in an apostate Great Britain. I agree with everything in this article except for the despair that the culture can never be redeemed. It is always darkest before the dawn. We have a unique opportunity in America (due to our Judeo-Christian foundations and republican form of government) to influence the culture, even though it has now moved into open hostility against Biblical truth. It is time to get busy rebuilding the broken walls of our culture rather than abandoning them altogether. This is very difficult, but if we don’t do it in this generation, then there will be no more America in which we can raise our children.
Check out the episode of Bubble Guppies called “Costume Boxing” featuring RuPaul as a female character. It’s not just coming, it’s here and it’s making every grab for our children’s minds that it can.
I think alongside of teaching biblical values, it’s important that we teach our kids Christian apologetics and how to rightly defend their own minds against evil being called good and good being called evil.
Yep, you lost. Sorry. The world is moving past you. My kid plays on a baseball team with a kid who has two moms. Guess how many times this has interested or concerned him? Zero. He just knows the kids is his friend and he wants to play baseball with him. No big deal. My kid’s not there to judge people and tell them what they are doing is right or wrong. And your kid wouldn’t care one bit that Elsa had a girlfriend either. But once you light into them about the evil ways of Elsa and her love life you’ll spark a far greater curiosity in your child. Elsa lives in a magical world where she can control the weather with her fingers. Your child knows that this world isn’t real life. I’m sorry your child might have to learn about the real world too early for you.
Love this! It’s a great biblical perspective. I wanted to mention a tool that is out there that can help parents monitor their kids’ social media accounts because this is where a lot of the info gets through to them. It’s called Digital Defense. I think it has become a necessity to protect your family like never before.
Mydamselpro.net/BEACHDEFENSE/content/digitalprotection.aspx
Great message. Thank you from a grandmother.
HMMMM….
Almost certainly a trial balloon..
I googled “#giveElsaaGirlfriend” and this came up all I have to say is people like you make me ashamed to be Christian. Thankfully I go to a church that excepts everybody. In Sunday school we learned about lost sheep and you my friend are vary vary vary lost if you think, basically anything you said in this article. But even if you are so lost and full of hate. god loves you.