OPEN SEASON ON YOUNG IMPRESSIONABLE SOULS

by Ellen Makkai
November 4, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

Children are once again pinned to the cultural dart board as Lucifer targets their souls. Hollywood remains the satanic toady of choice with the latest weapon being �The Golden Compass,� a polished and clever bit of celluloid starring the fetching Nicole Kidman. It is due out just in time to insult both Hanukkah and Christmas.

Concerns arise at the stealth nature of the movie, a dumbed-down version of book-one in �His Dark Materials,� the award-winning British trilogy for children by atheist Phillip Pullman who said in 2003, �My books are about killing God.� He purposes that youngsters �decide against God and the kingdom of heaven.�

�The film is based on the least offensive of the three books�the producers are watering down the most despicable elements.� says William Donohue, President of the Catholic League. �The fact remains that the movie is bait for the books.�

Odds are that Tinsel-town buzz will propel kids to the movie; they will love it and beg for the books in which Christianity is labeled �a powerful and convincing mistake.� The legitimate fear is that children�s righteous trajectory and fledgling faith, which innately gravitate toward belief, will be compromised - even axed.

What�s a devout parent to do?

E-mails already circumnavigate the globe alerting families to this latest soul assault. Some theologians are calling for a boycott which is every marketer�s dream, a surefire revenue booster as the forbidden-fruit dynamic kicks in.

Families must shun obvious anti-God maliciousness, but efforts on behalf of children should focus more on �prepare and equip� than on �protect.� We can�t shield our tykes from every pedagogue and playmate used by Apollyon in his ongoing campaign to dethrone God.

Scripture exhorts us that all hell will incrementally break loose until it becomes a deluge but El Shaddai never called us to raise kids as cloistered hot-house flowers. Rather, they are to be trained as stout defenders of truth and opponents of blasphemy � an achievable goal when families work in tandem with the Holy Spirit.

Pivotal in children�s spiritual schooling is an intimate relationship with God. If we are to offset the no-God lie, kids need to know God - not in theory but in reality.

A recent Associated Press/MTV poll among 13-24 year-olds reinforced the obvious fact that dedicated parents outpace peers, school and media in terms of influence. So it follows that folks who honor God in worship, attitude, word and behavior model Him before their children.

Prayer is another vehicle by which God makes Himself known. Praying children are soon immune to the suggestio falsi that heaven doesn�t hear.

God also speaks from the Bible. It is a user-friendly, divinely inspired manual that should be every child�s primary text. Scripture is replete with time-tested directives for abundant life coupled with warnings against reckless folly. Included is the history of exemplary lives and calamitous rebels. The Bible is an analytical study of ignorance, defeat, rescue and triumph. It strengthens the young and the old, wise or simple.

And with a little practice, kids discover power in the name of Jesus.

Almost three decades back, a night terror announced its presence via the screams of our very small daughter. �Jesus, Jesus,� was her quivering response, followed by silence then sleep. Late the next night, a barely-audible refrain of �Jesus loves me, this I know� alerted us that she was again enlisting the Almighty in her mini spiritual skirmish. Soon the spook, real or imagined, abandoned her bedroom.

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To survive this increasingly perverse and recalcitrant culture, only children raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord will thrive. And in years hence, when a sour, ignorant soul or institution says, �There is no God,� more than one such child of God will enthusiastically reply, �Oh, but you�re wrong, He lives. I know him personally. Let me introduce you.�

Bible Byte: �Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.� Mark 9:42

� 2007 - Ellen Makkai - All Rights Reserved

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