Protecting Our Kids Ears - Ruth Chant
Have you ever had a hard time believing what God says about you? You know the truth but it can be hard to hear it when you are bombarded with lies. Like us, our kids will go through seasons where this will happen to them. Thankfully, we can protect ourselves, and our children, by learning to discern exactly what we are hearing. There are two parts to this; i) protecting what we hear, and ii) training our ability to understand the source of what we hear to embrace the good and reject the bad.
Protecting our Kids Ears
There are so many voices that bombard our children. And each has a message that seeks to influence them one way or another. Media, TV, cartoons, YouTube, movies, music, school, friends, family members all have a voice that pushes to be heard in your life.
Today more than ever we have to be the gatekeeper to our homes and use our discernment to truly decide what we will allow in our homes. Why? because attached to each voice is a set of values that will either build up or tear down the work of God in a person's life.
What words are being sung in the songs you allow into your home?
Do they seek to bring life and honour to the Lord?
Are these songs full of the current culture and its values?
Who are you chatting with on that game?
Who is commenting on your YouTube? Do you know them? And what is being said?
Are your children on social media?
Do you know the voices commenting, influencing and being given a place to speak over and within your child?
These are extremely important questions to ponder. And they do have implications. For our family at this stage I have decided to lead the way. My children do not have access to social media. I desire my home to be a place of rest for my children. Social media can be all consuming and I do not believe it adds to my children’s already busy lives. On the contrary, it provides access to your children in what is meant to be safe spaces (their home) with language and words that you would never allow to be spoken over your child if the person was actually there.
I want to know who is speaking into my children's lives. As their parent, I am my child’s authority and with this comes a mandate to protect, guide, love and train.
Training our Kids Ears
When my children were very young they started playing the piano with the Suzuki Method. This method trains the ear to listen to fine nuances within a piece of music. Through lots of practice and repetition and careful attention they developed a beautiful feel for music. This refinement and training of the ear came with intentionality.
It is the same with training our kids ears in the spiritual. We need to be very intentional. I love the following verse.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” John 10:27-28
Everything we do needs to point to help our children to hear the Lord’s voice. That means we understand the fine nuances - we understand His tone. Whilst as parents we guard and protect them from negative, intimidatory, lying voices as much as we can, we can't be there all the time. Learning to protect their own ears and most importantly, learn to hear the voice of God for themselves, is the best protection for their future we can give them.
How do we do this? We teach our kids to know the types of things He is likely to say, because this reveals His character and heart.
Here are some ideas:
Give time in your day to hearing what the Lord is saying.
Ask the Lord, “What is on your heart today?”
Read the Word so your children understand truth and develop in their discernment
Role play and give scenarios and ask them does this sound like Jesus or the enemy?
Teach your kids to not only hear but follow what the Lord may be saying.
There is great power in being intentional about helping our children to listen to what God is saying. Let us give them the best chance in hearing the one voice that matters in their world. Where we need to, let us strip back the other voices, especially those that seek to influence them negatively.
Also read: “Protecting Our Kids Eyes” here.
Written by Ruth Chant
Ruth is married to Bruce Chant and they have three children. She lives in Perth and is on team at Kingdomcity.