I have been in on many discussions recently and it seems that each of them center on the word “passion”.  What is your passion?  What are you passionate about?  How do I find my passion and my purpose?  I, like many of us, haven’t always understood my purpose, but passion comes easy to me.  I’m not a very “middle of the road” person on most issues. Okay.  I can think of no issue that I would be considered middle of the road.  I am a choose a side and take your stand kind of girl.  Black and white.  Right and wrong.  And there is nothing that I am more passionate about than my kids and, for that matter, your kids.

Recently I heard Lisa Bevere say, “I need you to be fully awake.”  That resonates with everything in me.  I would like to share three stories with you:

1. Due to my position with CareNet, I and our staff spend a considerable amount of time trying to stay current on technology, social media, and apps.  Musical.ly is very popular right now among middle school students.  I was looking into the app a few days ago and saw a video posted by a 7^th grade young lady.  She was lip-syncing to a song containing words like g** d***, b****, and f***.  She mouthed every word but when the f*** word would come up she would put her finger over her mouth.  I do want to interject here that there are hashtags associated with many apps that parents seem to find harmless.  If you click on the hashtags, very quickly you can find yourself looking at pornographic images.  Most filters do not filter apps at all…I repeat, most filters do not filter apps (social media) at all.
2. I recently visited with a family who is an intact, Christian family trying to set boundaries and hold their children accountable. This family had filters and even took up phones and all devices each night and kept them in their master bedroom.  One of the teens purchased a device without the parents’ knowledge and knew the password to the Wi-Fi in the home.  The teen was able to connect to the internet in the home and then was able to use snapchat, facetime, texting, etc.  The teen used the device to carry on explicit conversations with a girlfriend and make plans for and carry out detrimental actions to himself and the family.
3. Recently, I sat in a room talking with a typical 12-year old girl about the nude pictures she had texted to boys in her school. I was visiting with her because of her recent suicide attempt.

As Bevere says, “I need you to be fully awake.”  I want to let you off the hook on a couple issues…

• You do not have to be like everyone else. You do not have to parent like the parents of your children’s friends.  Who made us believe that we have to give our children cell phones in the 3^rd grade or our children will be scarred for life and hate us if we implement biblical boundaries?  WHO TOLD YOU THAT?  It is a LIE!
• The stories listed above could be about your child.   The parents of these kids didn’t think it would happen in their homes either.

I was visiting with the young man I described in #2 above and I looked him square in the eyes and said, “The Lord has a mighty calling on your life or the enemy wouldn’t be fighting so hard to take you out.  I am going to need you to fight.”  I hear stories like these every day.  The enemy has unleashed an all-out assault on our teens and children.  Undoubtedly, the Lord has a magnificent calling on the next generation.  A calling that will require them to use the spiritual and emotional muscles that these attacks should be strengthening and developing.  BUT, we need them to fight! To resist the enemy…to stand!  And in order to do that, we must convince them that there is a real battle waging.

As I looked into the eyes of that overwhelmed teenage young man and asked him to fight for all that God had planned for him…my heart almost split right in two.  Because I wanted desperately to look into the eyes of the parents of this next generation, into the eyes of the parents of these children, into your eyes…and if I could I would say, “I’m going to need you to be fully awake and I am going to need you to fight.”

We have two choices and only two…

• Understand that you and your family are experiencing one of the most vicious and evil attacks of the enemy in history. See the battle happening around you and…fight!
• Or step aside and watch as your children are destroyed by it.

We must wake up!

My love,