In today’s digital age, viral social media trends are often seen as harmless fun, but they can pose significant spiritual and physical dangers to our children. These trends, driven by likes and shares, often encourage behavior that clashes with biblical values. They can lead our teens to seek validation from an online audience of their peers rather than from God, who created them uniquely in His image. The Apostle Paul warns us in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Many of these trends encourage conformity to the ways of the world. They can lead to comparison, anxiety, and even recklessness, pushing our children to prioritize a moment of online fame over their safety and spiritual well-being. It’s our duty to guide our children through this digital landscape with wisdom and discernment. By discussing these trends openly and grounding our conversations in Scripture, we can help them to stand firm in their faith.

Today, I want to share with you a prayer for a wandering adult child, included in Kathleen Nielson’s wonderful book, “Prayers of Parents for Adult Children”: “Lord God, I do not know and cannot see her heart, but all her steps appear to turn away from you, away from light and life found in your Son. I know, Lord, that you see into the darkest heart; your perfect wisdom lays out all our paths. Please turn her feet and move her heart toward you, toward life in Christ, I pray. I do not know just how you might ordain to call her to yourself to find eternal life and life abundant, through believing in your Son. I know that you have given your breathed-out Word, the writings that can make us wise for salvation as we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the living Word made flesh to save us. Please, by your Spirit and your people, speak your Word of life into her heart, I pray. I trust in you, even as I daily ask, please lead her to believe in Christ your Son, I pray.”

Thanks to the continued rise of body-image pressure that has been fed and fueled by marketing and social media, our teenage boys are being encouraged to engage in what’s called “Testosterone-maxxing”, or “testmaxxing.” The practice involves attempts to increase male hormone levels through the use of hormone medications. A host of social media influencers have been building their following of teenagers young and old alike, some barely into puberty, feeding the narrative that to be a real man you must have bulging muscles and washboard abs. This trend is fueling a rise in unrealistic body expectations, dissatisfaction with one’s body, and dangerous medication trends. And thanks to the algorithms, our curious kids who seek information on bulking up in this way will continue to receive more and more information, thereby driving them deeper and deeper into this dark hole. Parents, monitor your boys, and teach them that their identity is not to be found in their muscle tissue, but in Christ.

From the time that our first parents chose to follow their own desires rather than God’s guidelines in Genesis three , our world and everything in it has been marred by sin. Consequently, our families are populated by broken people living with broken people. Because of this, our marriages are at times very difficult. And, parenting is difficult as well. We are broken parents raising broken kids. Yes, there are times and seasons of great joy, but there will be bumps in the road. We make a huge mistake if we expect to have a perfect family with perfect kids. We may even base our contentment in life on having a perfect family. If that’s the case, we are only setting ourselves up for disappointment. One reason for this is that we have set a perfect family up as an idol. And like all other idols, the idol of family can never and will never deliver what we hope it will. Parents, just like you and me, our kids are broken and in need of redemption. Look for your source of happiness in Jesus Christ. 

Parents, are you aware of the online chatbot service known as character.ai? Users can create virtual characters and personalities they can then interact with in a variety of ways. While users can engage with the chatbots to play games or assist with writing projects, the folks at Parents Together Action and Heat Initiative are telling us that when they engaged with character.ai while posing as teens under the age of eighteen, the AI chatbots conversed with them in ways that are best described as sexual exploitation and emotional manipulation. They also gave harmful advice, including offering drugs and even recommending armed robbery. Parents, this calls for increased diligence on your part, as according to the researchers, character.ai allows kids as young as thirteen on the platform, and they don’t require age or identity verification, which means kids even younger can join. Set online time limits for your kids, and always monitor their use of digital devices.

In Proverbs twenty-nine twenty five we find words that speak volumes of truth which we need to hear in our social media-saturated world. “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” All of us struggle at times with making a good impression while wondering what other people think about us. This, according to Proverbs, is a snare, as it can become an obsession, trapping us into the vicious and spiritually deadly whirlpool of making every effort to seek man’s approval, rather than living to the glory of God. Tim Keller says that “if we look to human beings more than to God for our worth and value, we will be trapped by anxiety, an over-need to please, by the inability to withdraw from exploitive relationships, by the inability to take criticism, and by a cowardice that makes us unable to confront others.” As Christians, we must push back on our bent towards fear of man, as we learn to live to God’s glory alone. And, we need to lead our kids to do the same.

I recently heard a theologian say that he has stopped trying to discern whether people he meets and knows are believers by asking them, “Are you saved?” Instead, he asks them this question: “Is Christ living in you?” He explained this switch by saying that many people today look back on a particular church service or camp experience where they raised their hand or went forward at the invitation to commit their lives to Christ. Sadly, while they no longer pursue a relationship with Christ, they believe that they are indeed Christians. Rather than falling on the good soil we read about in the Parable of the Sower, these are seeds that have fallen on the stony soil where the initial joy fades quickly and withers under pressure. This distinction should drive us to nurture our kids into understanding that the Christian life is not captured in a momentary decision, but is marked by a life of sanctification, where every square inch of their lives is lived with gratitude to the glory of God!

If you are thinking about helping your kids navigate the world of Artificial Intelligence in regards to research and gathering information, I want to read you some helpful words from professor, Dr. Thomas Fowler in a recent edition of Touchstone Magazine. “Do the chatbots add any value with their search capability? Basically, no; the behavior of chatbots is completely at variance with the methods of research done by a real person, who finds sources and then critically filters and analyzes them, seeking to extract the most important and best-justified conclusions in light of the subject and of reality. This process we call “truth seeking,” but it is not what AI does: It does not decide what is true and what is not. AI systems are “built to be persuasive, not truthful,” says an internal Microsoft document. We need to lead our kids away from sources that lie. Parents, teach your kids how to engage in the process of using the Bible as the basis for developing skills in wisdom and discernment.

There’s a scene in the 1986 movie “Wildcats” that was oft-imitated by kids trying to be funny back in the late 1980’s. A group of cheerleaders dance and chant at the other school’s cheerleaders, “U-G-L-Y you ain’t got no alibi! You ugly!” While the scene was intended to be funny, the real-life sentiment is still being dished-around as a biting criticism among the teenage population. In today’s social media saturated world, it’s the word “Chopped” that’s trending among kids. While we adults are largely ignorant to teen slang, we need to be aware that when teens call someone “chopped”, they’re issuing a put-down about that person’s appearance or social status. We need to respond with the kind of support that builds resilience if our kids are being labeled as “chopped.” And, for those kids who call others “chopped” either face-to-face or online, we need to correct them, reminding them that the Scriptures call us to treat others with Christ-like love, kindness, and humility.

How will you respond to your children when they make a mistake or do something wrong? What will you say if your daughter turns her back on all that you taught her and winds up sexually active and pregnant? What will you say if your son gets suspended from school for fighting? What will you do if you find drug paraphernalia in your teen’s room? What will you do if your daughter gets arrested for shoplifting? Remember that just like you and me, your teen’s sinfulness is the greatest problem they face. All teens will encounter temptation and all teens will make sinful choices. The determining factor in whether or not a bad choice turns into a situation that gets better or worse will depend on your response. Let me suggest that your goal should be to redeem these situations by turning a mistake into an opportunity for your teen to become a more Godly and Christ-like person. Treat them with the same grace your Heavenly Father treats you when you are the offending party.