License to Parent with Trace Embry

Integrity is the evidence that one’s selfish interests are subordinate to the greater and more transcendent good of the masses. It’s what God wants within us to properly represent and serve Him. Integrity is also what we want in our kids to properly represent us as parents, along with our name’s sake. For the Christian, our integrity may be our greatest means of proving God’s authority in our lives—it’s worship in the truest sense.

Karen Budzinski is a teacher who shares her passion to live victoriously, and leads groups of all ages from birth to seniors both in the United States and abroad. Her signature class, Building Better Relationships, is taught in her home several times a year. Karen and her husband, Gary, reside in Michigan. Beginning in 1984, they were blessed with 5 children in a 5-1/2 year time span. Their family has grown to their five adult children, their spouses, ten granddaughters and four grandsons. Together, Gary and Karen became Certified Presenters of the National Center for Biblical Parenting curriculum, Cooperation, Consequences and Keeping Your Sanity. Karen began teaching marriage classes in December 1981. She has worked in many areas of ministry in the Church and the community since then.

Taking Time to Instill Integrity in Our Kids

The word “integrity”—like so many terms today—is another word that’s slowing being redefined from its original meaning and intent. I’m finding that the more our society strays from its biblical foundation and morals, the word integrity itself is becoming redefined to mean something different than you and I have always understood it to mean. More and more, integrity is about taking care of number one. It’s about being true to yourself—whatever that actually means. There used to be a self-sacrificial component to the term “integrity,” that seems to be ebbing away in recent times. Integrity also used to involve people adhering to a moral principle or principles that transcended their own individual interests or desires. It could cost someone time, money, reputation—maybe even their life—to remain steadfast and do the right thing. “The right thing” was always assumed, understood, and accepted by the masses and was always something that was good for the masses—and not just the individual.

Just one small example of what I’m talking about—as it relates to parenting—is the fact that people used to stay married for the sake of their kids, the greater society, and for God. That required sacrifice and commitment that put others’ interests ahead of self.

Another example is when school teachers would call parents and report that little Johnny was disruptive in school. Parents would most often side with the school teacher for the sake of objective truth, and what’s best for—not just little Johnny—but the entire class. Today, if little Johnny reports an entirely different perspective on the situation than the teacher, parents are too often quick to side with their kid. The teacher is then put on trial for unfairly singling out little Johnny for whatever reason. Building children of integrity—as God defines integrity—should be the goal of any parent who claims to be a child of God.

Integrity cannot exist without a common moral standard, nor is it a line that is moveable. As we’re raising our children, a lot of times we can see that we’re disciplining them using the same negative traits that we’re attempting to correct. It’s important that parents use integrity when attempting to instill integrity in their kids. In addition to this, it’s important for parents to be watchful for teachable moments. We get very caught up in the day-to-day hustle and bustle, and can sometimes forget to look for those moments. The devil likes to use our busyness as a way of distraction, and we can’t allow that to take away opportunities to instill integrity into our children’s lives.

Episode Highlights:

How is society changing our view of integrity?

Integrity is the evidence that one’s selfish interests are subordinate to the greater and more transcendent good of the masses. It’s what God wants within us to properly represent and serve Him. Integrity is also what we want in our kids to properly represent us as parents, along with our name’s sake. For the Christian, […]

Of course, anything that one values to the point of occupying the lion’s share of his/her thoughts, time, talent, treasure, and energy can also be considered their idol. God will not compete with idols, nor can He bless a life that—for all intents and purposes—puts a greater value on the created than the Creator. Have our kids become the social animals that God never intended them to be?

A graduate of the American Film Institute Conservatory, Jonathan Green’s documentary and scripted films have screened at various domestic and international festivals including Barcelona, Cyprus, SXSW, and Cannes. His short documentary The Birth of the Camera Phone premiered on the National Geographic short film showcase and was selected as a Vimeo Staff Pick. He also received a Webby Award for his two interactive short films journaling the struggle of children victimized by the African AIDS pandemic. Currently, Jonathan helms Subconscious Films, the original content banner of Conscious Minds, developing both documentary and scripted projects across multiple genres.

The Risks and Rewards of Instagram and How Parents Can Navigate Them

Jonathan Green’s latest short film, Social Animals, explores the great influence of Instagram on the younger generation. Instagram is currently the juggernaut of the social media field, which prompted him to make it the focus of his new film. Most teenagers today were not introduced to social media and the idea of rapidly sharing pictures with each other; rather this was the world they were born into. The goal of the film is to view the ways in which Instagram can bring people together and create a community, while also exploring some of the dark areas and hidden risks of the social media giant.

Bullying is one of those hidden risks that teenagers experience via Instagram, or any digital communication for that matter. There seems to be this empathetic disconnect that comes into play once someone is writing from behind a screen. Digital bullies say things to people they would never feel comfortable saying directly to that person’s face. When people are cruel to each other in the real world, they have to see a person’s expression and recognize the cruelty they just inflicted upon them. The digital world removes that humanitarian aspect and empowers bullies to say the cruelest things possible, without having to process the pain they inflicted on another human being.

There are, of course, other dangers within Instagram, but it may not be so simple to discount the social platform as a whole. After all, direct messaging on Instagram is not all that different than texting. Instead of writing off Instagram, which is simply a tool, it may be more beneficial to instill certain virtues in teenagers that will carry through to the digital world. Even still, the innovations of Instagram and other social media are outpacing our ability as parents to decide how to manage it. It takes longer to evaluate the psychological and spiritual impact that social media is having on our kids than it does to develop and introduce new communication tools. It’s for this reason that parents need to decide if, and how quickly, they want to introduce their kids to these social media platforms.

Episode Highlights:

An introduction to the short film, Social Animals.

Why does bullying seem to come so easily across digital media?

How parents can combat some of the risks associated with Instagram usage.

Picture via: Pxhere

Of course, anything that one values to the point of occupying the lion’s share of his/her thoughts, time, talent, treasure, and energy can also be considered their idol. God will not compete with idols, nor can He bless a life that—for all intents and purposes—puts a greater value on the created than the Creator. Have […]

Media and entertainment are just two of these vehicles through which our kids interact and form ideas, while our government, the mental health industry, and education are just a few of the “institutions” that actually codify these interactions and ideas.

Tina Marie Griffin went from baling hay and milking cows on a dairy farm in Wisconsin to working as an actress in Hollywood. At the age of 20, she drove 2,000 miles west and enrolled at California State University – Los Angeles to pursue a film and TV broadcasting degree and start her acting career. When she isn’t traveling and speaking, you will find her busy writing radio spots, blogging, cooking, camping, traveling, homeschooling her 4 munchkins or having a romantic date night with her best friend – husband Luke.

Why Parents Need to Educate Themselves About Today’s Popular Teen Entertainment

I’m seeing more and more that parents don’t have a clue about what’s going on in pop culture these days. Take Netflix, for example. Just over the past six months, they’ve put out a slew of inappropriate tv shows geared toward teens. One of these, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, highlights the occult and demonic activities. This is currently one of the most popular shows on Netflix, and our kids are paying attention. Recently, there were a couple of girls in Florida, aged 11 and 12 years old, who were watching these types of programs, and planned to kill 15 people in their school before then killing themselves. What we’re seeing is that entertainment is brainwashing our children on how to carry out these heinous crimes.

A few other programs kids and teens are watching, that parents may not be aware of, include:

Lucifer: In this show, the devil is viewed as the good guy. The viewers feel sorry for him, because God kicked him out of Heaven, and it makes God out to be the bad guy for kicking him out.

Anne with an E: This is not your mom’s Anne of Green Gables. Recently, the show added five new characters, all of whom are lesbians.

Fuller House: Again, not the wholesome we remember. This reboot contains a lot of sex-saturated themes. All the girls have, of course, grown up and are in their 30’s. Most of them wear a lot of low cut tops and really short skirts. By episode 13 of the first season, two girls are kissing and two guys are as well.

13 Reasons Why: Cutting and suicide are promoted. Kids have committed suicide themselves after watching this show.

Entertainment is having a major influence on religion within the United States as well. I was recently made aware of the fact that witches outnumber Presbyterians in the US, and the religion of Wicca and paganism is growing astronomically. I’m hearing from friends about the number of people joining Wicca, as well as hearing from kids about what is going on within school walls.

Parents need to wake up to these issues, and the Counter Culture Mom app is one tool parents can use to fight them. In this app, parents receive weekly notifications about things that are coming out in about 48 hours, what these things entail, and some talking points to cover with their kids to help steer them clear of it. We, as parents, need to help our kids learn the importance of making wise media choices. Believe it or not, several celebrities have themselves admitted to sheltering their kids from the entertainment that Hollywood is putting out. They recognize that it’s not appropriate for their kids, so why is it appropriate for ours?

There are a lot of positive alternatives to these programs that are available. Counter Culture Mom has created a parent media guide that helps parents do a pop culture purge in their home. Parents can easily get their hands on this resource by texting the word “guide” to the number 444999. It will ask for your email, and once you enter that information, you will receive this four-page PDF guide.

Episode Highlights:

Examples of shows with inappropriate content ...

Media and entertainment are just two of these vehicles through which our kids interact and form ideas, while our government, the mental health industry, and education are just a few of the “institutions” that actually codify these interactions and ideas. Tina Marie Griffin went from baling hay and milking cows on a dairy farm in […]

When these people of influence, whether they be doctors, lawyers, therapists, entertainers, athletes, educators, politicians, and even clergy, all accept and promote something as logically inconsistent as gender fluidity, who are we to say otherwise? Any prudent individual would conclude that we would be the wise parents that our kids need in a world of educated fools. Today, we’ll pick up where we left off last time with our guest, Dr. Michelle Cretella, as we attempt to bring some sanity back into a conversation—a conversation that too often doesn’t exist at all.

Dr. Michelle Cretella is Executive Director of the American College of Pediatricians, where she’s become one of the college’s chief researchers, writers, and spokespersons on issues in pediatric mental and sexual health. Her article, Gender Dysphoria in Children and Suppression of Debate, was published in the 2016 summer issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. She serves on numerous national medical committees, and is a parent herself. Dr. Cretella and her husband have three sons and a daughter.

How Transgender Ideologies Are Changing Our Culture

Transgender ideology claims that sex and gender are not synonymous with one another. This ideology claims that we have a biological sex as well as a separate gender identity, and this gender identity may or may not match our biological sex. I call this an “ideology,” simply because there is no scientific evidence to support this claim of a separate gender identity.

As with most cultural revolutions, the transgender movement began with the changing of the language. To some, this transgender movement came out of nowhere, but it’s actually been a long time coming, simply because of the changing and manipulation of the language. Back in the 1950’s, there were two pedophiles, Dr. Harry Benjamin and Dr. John Money who were heavily involved with men who wanted to be women. The doctors got the idea that they would tell the community that they were treating these men’s gender identities. This term had never been used prior to this. Afterward, feminists began using this same language saying that gender was merely a social expression of sex stereotypes. Then there were the queer theorists who said that gender also means various sexual attractions. Sexual revolutionists of the 1960’s, who then went into higher education on college campuses, helped to develop this entire language that was ultimately used by transsexual adults to argue that they were born this way.

In order for this ideology to be turned around, it’s going to take a mass civil disobedience. What I mean by this is that these families who think they are immune to these issues need to realize that it’s going to have an effect on them. For instance, there was a little five-year-old girl in Georgia who was sexually assaulted in the bathroom by a five-year-old boy who identified as non-binary. The schools aren’t allowed to tell parents when a child claims a different gender identity and is allowed to use the opposite gender’s bathroom. The reason schools can’t relay this information is because of how President Obama changed the wording of the Title IX law.

So what is the effect of these transgender ideologies on our kids? What we’re seeing is that the number of kids, from preschool through high school, claiming transgenderism is skyrocketing. This is happening all over the world. You may be wondering how kids as young as five have any sort of understanding of sex, but we are living in a culture where pornography is pervasive. We’re giving cellphones to two year olds. Children as young as age six are being exposed to pornography accidentally by way of this cell phone usage. There are studies now where 11-year-olds are addicted to pornography. There are also numerous children's books, including those geared toward preschoolers, about normalizing gender fluidity. Parents have to be very proactive in discussing the school c...

When these people of influence, whether they be doctors, lawyers, therapists, entertainers, athletes, educators, politicians, and even clergy, all accept and promote something as logically inconsistent as gender fluidity, who are we to say otherwise? Any prudent individual would conclude that we would be the wise parents that our kids need in a world of […]

As if adolescence wasn’t confusing and traumatic enough, what does it say to a pubescent young man or young woman when they’re now given the option—by supposedly educated professionals and parents who love them —to become the sex of their choosing? This, despite empirical evidence to the contrary.

Dr. Michelle Cretella is the Executive Director of the American College of Pediatricians, as well as a general pediatrician with a special interest in behavioral pediatrics. She’s become one of the college’s chief researchers, writers, and spokespersons on issues in pediatric mental and sexual health. Dr. Cretella is commonly consulted by Breitbart News, Family Research Council, One News Now, and many others. Her article “Gender Dysphoria in Children and Suppression of Debate, was published back in 2016 in the summer issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Cretella serves on numerous national medical committees, and after 15 years of group practice in rural Connecticut and Rhode Island, where she now lives, she left clinical practice to devote more time to her family.

Why We Need to Uphold the Medical Definition of Sex

According to Dr. Michelle Cretella, the debate over gender dysphoria is more of a theological debate than a scientific one. There is currently no science, because the transgender activists say that people have two things. They say that people have a sex, which is determined by having either XY or XX chromosomes. The activists then continue by saying outside of having a biologically determined sex, humans have a gender identity. This, they say, is not determined by your DNA, but rather controlled by your brain, and your brain and body can be on different pages, so to speak. The issue with this theory is that the brain is a part of the same body and is affected by the same hormones generated by your biological sex. There is no way to study an infant or adolescent to determine transgenderism, because biologically-speaking, we don’t have genders. We, as humans, only have sex. There is no scientific evidence to the contrary.

If this can’t be a scientific debate, then it really comes down to ideology and semantics. We, as Christians, were meant to discover God’s creation here on Earth. We were intended to use the scientific method to study His creation and understand how it functions. If you have someone who does not believe in God, or at least a creative designer, they see man as the ultimate authority and use science as a way to overcome nature. Sex and gender, for the secularists, is their false premise, in the eyes of Christians. To the secularists, however, God is our false premise. Both worldviews are received on faith, based on what each believes to be true.

These theological debates over sex and gender have, of course, had an effect on the American government. When Barack Obama was in office, he changed the definition of ‘sex’ in law to include gender identity. What we have heard recently is that Trump is now trying to make his own changes in relation to the definition of sex, and this is not so. Obama changed the definition of sex in Title IX and Title VII from sex, alone, to sex and gender identity. Because of this move, we are now seeing men who claim to be women entering women’s shelters, prisons, etc. What the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services is doing is defining sex as it always has been defined. The Trump administration is not making a change to the definition of gender, as the media likes to report it, they are upholding the medical definition of sex in law, as it always was.

As American citizens, we need to stand up against the transgender movement, and their redefinition of sex in the law. One thing you can do is go to the American Family Association website, where you will find the most up-to-date petitions. The one that’s going around now is Thank President Trump for Defining Sex Correctly. Just to reiterate,

As if adolescence wasn’t confusing and traumatic enough, what does it say to a pubescent young man or young woman when they’re now given the option—by supposedly educated professionals and parents who love them —to become the sex of their choosing? This, despite empirical evidence to the contrary. Dr. Michelle Cretella is the Executive Director […]