It’s Called Grooming

The State of Arizona, with our tax dollars, has set up groom rooms (called Chat Spaces) where your pre-teen and junior high students can interact with adult LGBTQ+ “counselors” and older LGBTQ+ teens about their sexual orientation and gender identity questions. The site is equipped with a quick exit button so that young teens can keep these discussions secret from their parents. This is available for all kids in our state, not just the public school kids.

This is real. If you do not believe me, you can see it here.

We live in Sodom. Even liberal comedian Bill Maher in a very crude way addresses the problem, however, it is not funny.

There is a reason that LGBTQ+ identities are growing exponentially in this country, especially in more liberal states. It’s called grooming. It’s state-sponsored, and it is impossible to hide your children from it. Yes, I used the correct word — impossible. Unless you have prepared your children to resist it, they will easily fall victim to it.

They are not coming after your children, they already are with them, right now. Do you know what your children are viewing on their computers or phones? Do you know who is giving them advice and counsel? Do you know what are they viewing on their friend’s phones? Do you know what they are actually doing in that after-school club?

Let’s have a blunt talk about Christian parenting today.

Your ability to preserve your child’s innocence is an illusion.

The idea that their innocence is so precious has always been an illusion. Your kids are sinners. They are not innocent. They will succumb to sinful temptations unless they are truly converted and truly walk with God. They are your mission field. They must be converted to Christ and discipled to maturity. If they are not transformed by the Spirit, they will find sinfulness no matter how much you isolate them from the world.

If you do not disciple your children for God, Satan will groom them for His purposes.

His methods are simple and he has done it this way from the beginning. He spoke to Eve when Adam was not there and God was not manifestly present. He told her that God (and Adam as well I assume) had been lying to her. He told her to question her very identity, to believe that there was potential hidden in her that God desperately did not want her to find. He told her that everyone else in her life was keeping her from true happiness.

This is Satan’s pattern, every time, all the time. It is happening in the groom-rooms, at the lockers, in the movies, over the phone, in the after-school clubs, and everywhere. Your children need to recognize this attack when it comes and be ready for it because it will come.

This culture is not a place for casual Christianity any more than Ukraine is for carefree living. We are in a war and the prize is your children.

Your children need the truth of God’s word. They need it from a young age. They need to be in church—all the time—not haphazardly when it is convenient for you. They need to hear you read the Bible and explain it to them. They need to see the principles of scripture applied in your life and in theirs. They need to pray and see prayers answered. You must create this home environment. It is your job. Anything less is negligence.

Your over-scheduling habit is working into the enemy’s hands.

The only way to prepare your children for the spiritual attacks they will face is to take the time to communicate with them. I said take the time. I watch parents fill their kids’ lives and their own with sports leagues, and other activities, so that there is no time to slow down, think, and talk.

One benefit of the pandemic was that parents and kids were forced to be home—all day—together. Some parents began talking with their children and they also began to look at the things that were being taught to their children. The present school board controversy is a direct result of parents being forced to actually pay attention to what is going on with their children in school.

Your overscheduling of your life and your child’s life might be setting them up for spiritual disaster. Get your eyes off of tomorrow’s schedule and look down the road ten years. Where is this taking you?

Having “the talk” is not the level of communication that is necessary.

Having “the talk” about sexual realities was an awkward rite of passage for generations. Parents dreaded it and kids were embarrassed by it. It usually came too late, was too short, and was totally incomplete. If you do not have a continuing conversation with your children starting from a very young age about sex, sexual identity, and the dangers of the world, you are putting your children in grave danger.

Your first conversations about sex probably need to happen in pre-school. Your kids need to see you as the expert on the subject. They need to know that they can come to you with questions and you will have answers. They need to know that you will give them answers that are direct, biblical, and that will equip them to function in this world.

Strictness will not cut it.

You cannot be strict enough to hide them from what is coming. I read an article recently about a set of abusive parents that chained their children to their beds, would not let them out during the day, and kept them totally isolated from the outside world. Even their neighbors were not sure there were children actually living in the house. It was a horrible situation. And still, the kids managed to get hold of a mobile phone, listen to forbidden music, eventually converse with people outside, and escape their abusive situation. The strictness necessary to isolate your children from the world would be abusive, would get you thrown in jail, and still would not work.

You should be adequately strict, but your efforts to disciple your children must go far beyond your household rules.

You cannot help your children adequately unless you deal with your own spiritual condition seriously.

Remember the last time you were on an airplane and the flight attendant gave the safety instructions?  When the oxygen mask falls, you are instructed to put it on your own face first, before tending to your children, because if you pass out first, there will be no one to help your kids.

Your kids need a spiritually healthy you to help them. Their spiritual health is dependent upon yours. Either they will see Christ and the Holy Spirit in you and be drawn to God through you, or they will see your wicked sinfulness and run away from Him because of you. The very souls of your children are at stake. This is time to be serious about your own walk with God. You cannot win this battle without His presence and His blessing.

Be joyful in Christ.

This seems like an odd thing to say given the alarmist tone of this article, but that is why I am saying it. The joy of the Lord is real and it is attractive. Laugh, love, and enjoy your life in Christ. This life we have in Christ is a true joy in spite of the trials we face along the way. Even when you face sorrow, demonstrate to your children how to sorrow biblically. They do not need to be protected from life’s realities and worries, they need to learn from you how to face them in a godly and biblical way.

You cannot parent your children the way previous generations did and be successful. You will have to do more—much more.