By Michael D. Daniels

The enemy, through public education, has seized control of the most precious treasure — our children. What have they done with this power? They have indoctrinated our children with demonic ideology and a godless worldview. The results? Mental health decline, including a dramatic increase in self-harming, and suicidal and homicidal tendencies.

Since the mid-20th century, youth psychosocial disorders have been increasing at an alarming rate. Between 1950 and 1980, suicide rates among white males aged 15 to 19 increased by 305%. The proportion of 15- and 16-year-olds reporting frequent anxiety or depression has doubled since the 1970s. A landmark study by Rutter and Smith documented the increasing prevalence of youth psychosocial disorders since the mid-20th century. They attributed the trend in part to increasing family discord and a cultural shift toward individualism. Each generation has fared worse than the one before. If that is not a mark of spiritual decay, I don’t know what is.

This is not a new tactic of the enemy. In fact, there’s a maxim often attributed to the Jesuits that sums this point nicely: “Give me the child until he is seven, and I will show you the man.” The poet Alexander Pope expressed a similar idea in a 1732 poem: “‘Tis education forms the common mind; Just as the twig is bent the Tree’s inclined.” The wisdom is ancient: early formation shapes the man.

The enemy has bent the twig of our youth now for generations, and I think we all can agree it has been bent toward evil. It is time to break the control over the minds of our youth and teach our kids the words of God. No one else is going to do it as well as you can. Children follow the models of their closest instructors.

What are we modeling to our youth?

Today, the average family sends their kids to public school and goes to work. Then everyone gets home, tired. Then it’s dinner, homework, Netflix, and video games. What are we doing? Are we fighting the battle for the minds of our kids? Or are we defaulting to a nice mind-numbing evening, while the enemy’s influence is slowly turning our kids against us and, more importantly, against God?

Let’s make our evenings relaxing by fellowshipping in the Bible together. Fellowship with our kids? YES! That is the CORE of the home. If we cannot read the words of God to our kids and model the value of Scripture in application to our lives, then we are going to lose something precious.

There is no joy like watching the precious mind of your son or daughter grow in knowledge of scripture, or see his eyes light up when he makes a connection he never made before, or when she repeats a story from the Bible to you, just to talk to her father about something she knew he would love.

Pray for wisdom to raise godly children. Read the Bible with your kids. Use materials like Chick tracts and The Next Step to illustrate and teach the word at home. Do everything you can to nullify the influence of the enemy with the inoculating power of the words of God.