Guard Your Heart!

"I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl." - Job 31:1  This was one of the first scriptures I had my boys memorize.  They were usually just starting to talk when I poured this scripture into the foundation of their soul.  I felt they needed to know the TRUTH from a very early age; the truth that God put THEM in control of what entered their spirit, their soul and their body.

Today, I am reading DISTURBING information (Children and the culture of pornography - WARNING this article is GRAPHIC and tragic) that has always been around because the heart of man is evil but it never has been so easily accessible or attainable like it is today with the Internet and smart-phones all at the fingertips of our children.  Where is their innocence?

As a Christian parent, we HAVE to have the HARD discussions with our children about things that many of us never thought we would have to do.  I know for me, there are things I read about today that  are things I never knew about, never cared to know about and quite honestly don't want to know but I have to get informed to protect my children, my home, and my investment in the future!

Personally my younger children don't have unlimited access to the Internet but they do have some access to it.  They also have many friends who DO have access and with that comes entrance to my home too.  We have rules in our home that require a "buddy" to be with you when surfing the net and younger children don't have cell phones with the capability in our home.  Older children in my home have submitted themselves to an on-line accountability program called: X3watch.com.  This site sets up a "buddy" system for you where emails are sent to a "buddy" you selected by sending them a "report" of sites and links you have viewed on your phone or on your computer.  For husbands this is great because sometimes wives don't want to know or don't handle the information gained in a way that is helpful to the marriage; some wives have no problem with helping their husbands in this area.  In this messed up culture now, we even have women having issues with porn that really weren't issues in the past so it too can be helpful to women.  For young men, it is a fabulous tool as they can have an accountability partner that helps them stay pure and be free!  I encourage you to check it out!

Regarding television we have another wonderful tool called Clearplay.  This is a DVD player that comes with a jump-drive where you download "filters" to over 4,500 movies and then dump those filters onto the player.  As soon as a movie is released, there is a filter available.  You can even use it on rented DVD's.  Every month we download all the filters and upload them to the DVD player and then we are set.

There are several filters available with several different levels of filtering.  Some of the filters are offensive language, excessive violence and sexual situations.  You can set the depth of the filter to none at all, mild, moderate and all and each category is set separately. There are even settings for things like vulgarity, crassness, and flag burning.  It is a great tool for a parent to control the movies that are played in your home.  You can even password your settings so they can't be changed.  We have the sexual filter enabled on our player and I am the only one in the family who knows the code.  (If you do choose to purchase this player, please tell ClearPlay that I (Suzanne Carlson) referred you...it will get you a discount and me one too!)  We have had this player in our home for 10 years now and when you continue to renew with them there are perks that are made available to you too!  Be sure to ask!  (You have not because you ask not!)  It has been a worthwhile investment to be able to watch a movie without having an offensive scene come up while my boys are watching with me.