Drug Proof Kids

We need a serious look at what drugs and addiction to create a resistance and resilience plan for our kids.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-you-arent-reading-about-marijuana-permanent-brain-damage-biden-schedule-iii-9660395e?st=A2KGj5&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Transcript

Ethan: 0:01

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

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Drug proofing your kids, or at least an inoculation. This is Raising Joyful Children in an Angry World. I'm your host, Paul Osborne. In the 1960s and especially the 70s, cigarette and tobacco companies were accused of marketing to kids. Flavored tobacco, candy cigarettes. The country's child health advocates did not want kids hooked on this unhealthy habit. And people saw the seductive methodology that tobacco firms were using. Boy, how things have changed. Rarely, rarely do I meet someone who believes the same thing about marijuana. Just last week in Houston, Texas, or maybe two weeks now, a teenager shot his mother and sister, and it was determined he had ate too many gummy bears laced with THC, and had lost all sense of reality. Attempted matricide. That's considered one of the darkest evils a person can commit. Trying to kill your mother. That's Norman Bates Psycho. Fortunately, I believe the mother and the sister lived. But the effect on the propaganda of this business is almost unimaginably powerful. See, so many Americans have surrendered the spiritual warning systems, the knowledge of the demonic world. And so stores that sell gummy bears and candy and cookies and brownies that are laced with THC. Oh, that's considered safe according to the law of many states. And it's a good tax base. It's safer than alcohol. The endless studies paid for by this industry. These lobbyists tell us the opposite of what the studies that aren't paid for by those lobbyists are reporting. I will point to you in the show note. Alicia Finley's interview from the Wall Street Journal with an expert named Bertha Madras. The article is called. Why aren't you hearing about marijuana's health effect? Read it and you might get a clue as to the danger and the reason it is rarely talked about. But for the Christian parent, we have some good news about the reality and what God teaches us about this, so that our kids can try and resist this. So first, you've got to understand the goal of a marketer. It's habitual use. It's repetitive customers. It's people that need their fix. That's what consumer products companies do to make money. And you're not going to be able to shield our family from drugs without understanding. What this is ultimately about, they're trying to get you hooked as a, as a business, but there's also a demonic force seduction in terms of a mind altering drug. That's being marketed through a gummy bear. It's called spiritual warfare. A second of all, I think if you understand what addiction is, and there's a new book out by Dunovan Riley, and he writes this about addiction, I think this gives us some insight. Addiction is not merely a battle of willpower or a psychological chess match. It's spiritual warfare. It's a clash between the forces of hopelessness and the redemptive grace. Of a higher power in our case of Jesus, it's darkness versus light. So, first of all, we got to teach our kids the stories of the Bible, so that they understand we're in a war and that we have an enemy who is trying to steal away our hope to take away our light and seduce us into something that is bad for us and is destructive. And one of the things I want to suggest to you that we do when we send our kids to Sunday school, and I really hope you get this, that if addiction is based on hopelessness, what we're trying to do is build the ingredient of hope into the hearts and minds of our kids. The Bible tells us that faith, hope, and love are connected. In fact, it says faith is confidence in things hoped for. The formation of a worldview, a view of life that is filled with hope, that sees that in the end, all things are restored, believes the stories of the Bible are true, that the message of forgiveness and absolution and renewal That are in these stories from our God is how we build the formation of hope. Think about the stories, Joseph and the, and, and the coat of many colors, the story of betrayal by his family and yet hope that God would redeem it. And he does. There's one story after the other of the. Fallenness of humanity and the redemption of God and the hopefulness that is in all of those stories, those themes and what we do when we teach them and we talk about them is we actually are putting an ingredient by the power of the Holy Spirit into the heart of the child and a vision and a mind that sees A vision of hope, then the heart is oriented towards hope and that mind trust God, it's not a guarantee against addiction, but it is a shield. And should those fiery darts somehow avoid that shield and trap one of our kids, it's still the path back to overcoming what has happened to us. You're not going to battle addiction without hope. The stories of the scripture create for our kids a reality, a core set of what is trustworthy so that by God's grace and the Holy Spirit, they live a life that is hopeful. I re watched Hoosiers this week with the passing of Gene Hackman. If you haven't watched the movie, go watch it. It's a story about redemption of a basketball coach who's on his last chance. It's the restoration of an alcoholic father, the assistant coach and redemption of his son's relationship with him. And underneath all of it is the quiet, confident son of a preacher who's praying for them all the way through it. The foundation of this film is found in our Bible. Hope, love, redemption. Without the preacher's son on the team, it's just another sports story. This is what we're trying to build into our kids. We must have our kids in church and in a church that teaches the Bible stories. You and I need to chat about them and understand them and understand what they're building and the spiritual ingredient that God is providing us to put into their heart. You probably have heard this if you've ever been in the business world. The cynic says, hope is not a strategy. Well, the faithful respond, hope is God's promise. It's not a strategy. It's a reality and it is necessary to living a joyful life. 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.