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 PROTECT YOUR KIDS: Parenting Tips
 Parents must be proactive to raise their children with proper moral character. It is a poor strategy to keep your children busy just in order to "keep them out of trouble.” It is unwise to give children what they want instead of what they need. Parents must not think of themselves as their children’s friend, but, much more so, as their loving, instructing teacher.
The loss of parents as the primary teacher of children is producing very bad consequences. Parenthood Magazine reported the following: “A Time/CNN poll conducted in 1998 showed teen-agers getting 45 percent of their information about sex from their friends and 29 percent from television. As our children's bodies mature at an earlier and earlier age (puberty is beginning an average of one to two years earlier in girls), we face a situation in which 12-year-olds are having to make decisions about sexual behavior. Magazines, television shows and pop lyrics constantly deliver sexual information and guidelines for sexual behavior - and our children are listening.”
So what’s the solution? Parents need to be shown how to parent. Age-old Biblical wisdom tells parents to “shepherd” their child’s heart. A book called “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” puts it this way: “Speak to the heart of your child. The things your child does and says flows from the heart. Luke 6:45 puts it this way, ‘...out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.’ (NIV).”
The following resources will help parents to not only prevent problems, but nurture and grow their children to be upstanding moral citizens.
FamilyLife.com Parenting
Focus on Your Child
Child Training
Parenthood Magazine: Setting the stage for talking about sex
Books and Articles
Advice for Young Parents from Dr. Sears
Focus on the Family books and resources
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