My son Riley has never had a very good relationship with pants. Up until recently the first thing he would do upon arriving home from anywhere would be to take off his pants. “They bother me” he’d say. My cousin Jake tells a story of Riley coming into his room (we were at Jake’s house for a family birthday party) and asking him if he would let Riley watch T.V. with him. Riley said “I promise not to take off my pants”. Jake agreed that would be fair. Riley had broken his promise by the first commercial break.

Here is a video demonstrating my point.

Click the picture to download the video. [10.5 MB for 45 seconds of entertainment]

Now back to yesterday’s subject.

You can not keep a teenage guy from having sex with his girlfriend by threatening him with STDs. You can not keep Roswell from eating Lenore’s barf by convincing him that it’s disgusting (Rowell and Lenore are our cats). These are not just cases of using the wrong tool for the wrong job. They are more like trying to mow your lawn by playing an accordion.

There are examples of this kind of logic (or lack thereof) for almost every vice parents are attempting to keep their kids away from. “Pot will make you stupid”. This is not true. I know some extremely smart and successful people who smoke pot. “If you drink alcohol you’ll be a slobbering drunk before you can say less filling – tastes great”. This is not true. I know people who have been drinking socially for years and are in no way addicted to alcohol. “If you start looking at porn on the innerwebs you’ll never be able to stop”. This is not true. OK I’m kidding. This one actually is true.

Here’s my point, no amount of parental disincentives are going to keep a kid from falling into sin. The only thing that will keep a teenager from falling into sin is a real personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And here’s the rub, you can not guarantee that a kid will choose Christ when it’s time to choose. You do not get to choose for them. You can help steer them all along the way and you can give them every advantage to help them make the right decision but the decision is theirs and theirs alone. This is scary.

I know absolutely nothing about raising a teenager but I do know this, I was as spiritually privileged (if there is such a thing) as a kid can be. I knew the Bible. I knew right from wrong. I knew Jesus died for my sins but when it came time for me to choose, I chose sin. (I’ll talk about this more in the upcoming days.)

I think that teenagers need the truth. Teach them the Word of God. Teach them the cross. Enough with the “you’re not mature enough to deal with the emotions of sex” drivel. If they are drawn to the Word of God then they will be compelled to please Him. This is what I’ve found in my life. I have not stopped drinking because I’m just a better person or because I’ve discovered some hidden will-power. I have stopped drinking because I am compelled by my relationship with Christ to stay sober. I have found something that brings me the peace I was never able to find at the bottom of a bottle of vodka.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 11th, 2007 at 11:56 pm and is filed under By Drew, Day to Day, Family, Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.