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Raising joyful children in an angry world, a podcast dedicated to faithful parents navigating their families through a stormy culture

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This is Raising Joyful Children in an Angry World. I'm your host, Paul Osborne. Today, I want to finish up on the battle for the body, preserving divine design. It's easy to kind of take this thing about the body, human sexuality, lightly, or even delay it. it can be an uncomfortable topic. But I want to say that the image and the stories that are being sold across our culture is an attempt to persuade young people to move from what they were meant to be, to do not only what they should not do, but this happens in order to become what they are not. This is all behind what Bart Swain recently pointed out in the Wall Street Journal, a methodology of restless progressivism. The Old Historic Faith would have called it evil. See, the design of the human body, the purpose and pleasure of sexuality according to our God, is found in Genesis, and it is described between a man and a woman becoming a family. What the culture is selling is the idea that individual rights and all power, when it comes to the body, belong to the individual. There's no such thing as a designer from Genesis. Therefore, these folks teach there's nothing you should not do with your body, at least in terms of human sexuality. And each person, they tell them, has the power to become whatever they want, regardless of their physical and chemical and emotional design and condition. It's the right of each person to change those chemicals in design. If the results of these attempts appear to be harmful to the adolescent making those choices, no, it's not the drugs. It's not the surgeries. No, no, no. It's because, you see, the society is hateful and that's what's causing the harm. Not the choice. no. Not this empowering choice. And if we don't spend time in the formation of our children in grasping their gender and sexuality, The world fills in the gaps, particularly during adolescent curiosity, with lies. Lies that are so pervasive and so commonly believed that they seem normal. Now, in my own experience in raising children, I, like a lot of Christian families, get concerned about, Oh, what do I need to avoid? Instead of, what do I need to seek? And I'm not diminishing. There are definitely things you need to avoid. Fortunately, Back then the society was not promoting the confusion and distortion that it is today. And subtle propaganda can be just as dangerous. these, these messages that normalize these ideas, however, today are pervasive in America. It is in all of our political discourse, our education, our arts, our entertainment, our sports, every institution. It is even inside the, In the second episode, I suggested planting the flag of truth by showing our kids nature and the scriptures as a means of battling the propaganda being told and sold. Today, I want to wrap up the last two fronts and then summarize this in a way I hope makes sense. I said the power of family and the power of story. I saw this this past weekend. This, this idea of planting the truth of gender and sexuality and God's provision. And I saw it at a strange place called Garner State Park. It's actually not strange, it's one of the most popular state parks in the state of Texas. On Saturday nights, the park hosts a Saturday night dance. And it takes place on this large sort of stone patio that sits above the Frio River. And the entire thing is shaded by these huge cypress trees as Texas swing music is played. It's a scene right out of Oklahoma. Remember when the, the boys would would bid on the baskets that the girls would make. Here at this dance, you see men and boys in their boots and their jeans and their hats and their belt buckles and the girls in checkered dresses with their boots, dads dancing with their daughters, moms with their sons. And groups like ours, a little church camping group with kids sharing dances. As I watch these kids eating ice cream between songs and dances, I was given the vision that I think these kids could see the complementary role between men and women, boys and girls. This is what a family looks like. How to have fun and perhaps there might have been a crush or two that sprouted amongst all those youth, but it was all done without tearing down the innocence of their youth. One of the things I admire about Texas is it has its own culture, its own clothes for men, clothes for women, and its own dance and music and food. But all of America used to participate in these days, you know, like when these old western movies were portrayed, as I mentioned, in the play Oklahoma. I was reminded of some of that as I watched the Outlaw Channel this week. The dance at Garner State Park provided imagery, as well as participation as to the power of family and families creating their own story. As I said last time, only God can bring our kids to an understanding of their gender, sexuality, and of family, but the imagery, And the stories and experiences our kids participate in is our responsibility. Because we are copycat creatures. We imitate what we see. And when we're introduced to the right things in our youth, we tend to copy them. Let me try to wrap it up this way in a way I hope makes sense. Because I don't know that most of us see Christianity to this extent. We see it as a salvation for our sins and a life after death. But God invites us into his creation to create. That which is beautiful and good according to what he says is true. And the greatest thing that any of us creates is a family. The seed of the father, the womb of the mother, the blessing of God. And the seed comes to life. It is born and then it is raised. And yes, sometimes this can happen out of adoption, but for the most part, creating a family between a husband and a wife is the single greatest thing, and the most beautiful thing that any of us participate in. And God invites us into that in His design and in His purpose. Therefore, of course, the devil then comes to rob us, as well as our kids, of this joy. He is the devil. He's the father of lies, and he loves death. So he's opposed to what God is giving us, which is truth and life. So he sneaks into our kids adolescent curiosity, sows some lies through the people of this world. He convinces men, ah, spread your seed among as many women as you want to. And women, oh, you do the same. That soulmate gift of God, he says, is a myth. He convinces some to exchange the natural for the unnatural, and too often the church tells us, well, oh, something's wrong, but it doesn't give us a hope of what can be right. And then the world, of course, on the other side, they're telling us, no, no, we are the way we are, or we can become what we think is right. Nothing can change us or, or, or move us from the identity that we have selected. And when we do that, and when our kids get pulled into that, we find ourselves in chaos, confusion, and when the truth of God comes, we fight back, we confront it. This is what is at stake. And so I say to you in conclusion, Give your kids a vision that they can be a great mother or father, that they will have a beautiful family of their own if it's in the way that God has designed it. Tell them that God intends for them to find a soulmate and join him. The invitation is to join God in creating life within the constraints of how it's supposed to happen, the way that he made it. Then pray over them, that God will bless them in this gift, and never give up that they find it. Show them nature, God's creation. Teach them the Bible, God's story. Show them how to be a family, God's gift. and show them and live with them the stories that reflect God's truth. The ultimate battle for the heart and soul is a fight for identity. Our king invites our kids to know who they are, what to believe, and where they belong. Until next time, let's remember the words for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.