Good Morning Church! What are you talking to your kids about these days?

LaVern Vivio

Published in

Autonomous Magazine

5 min readAug 7, 2016

I am not talking about the general everyday stuff;

“What did you do today? Did you clean your room? Finish your dinner? No you can’t go catch Pokemon now.”

I am talking about the hard stuff.

Are you talking to your kids about our country and what is happening in the world around us?

And make no mistake — Unless you never let your kids out of your sight and you police every moment of television / radio / and social media — They know so much more than you think they know.

So what do you say to them?

My boys will probably tell you I said too much — but they certainly got the truth. Honestly and thoughtfully — age appropriately — I always told them the truth.

The truth about the world / myself / the mistakes I made and still make!

It is — It has been — And always will be about the truth.

However, truth does not mean you flip through the pages of the pictorial / editorial The New York Post published this past week on Melania Trump with your kindergarteners.

But it might be a good opportunity to have a discussion with your teens and preteens about how the things they do while they are young may follow them every day of their lives — Especially in a world comprised of selfies / Instagram and Snapchat — all posted / tweeted and archived for the whole world and all of history to see.

God will always forgive but Facebook never forgets.

So — where do you begin?

The truth is often too ugly — inappropriate — and sometimes downright evil.

Start here — The Bible

I know of nothing we face today that can not in some way be paralleled with stories you will find in The Bible.

As we hear of every evil in the world — Or the lies / deception and general failings of those hoping to lead us — Look to the stories of the ancient leaders like King David and Solomon — To the lives of the people who lived so contrary to what God wanted and how He still used them to His purpose.

Look at the stories of the women in Biblical history that were prostitutes and adulteresses yet God lifted them up.

We can find encouragement in knowing that God wins — His will has been and will continue to be done — We are just a thread in the tapestry of the story.

But make no mistake every little thread has a vital part to play.

Have you ever seen a beautiful tapestry but you were distracted by the one missing thread — or a sweater that has been snagged — and has a thread hanging in a mess from what was once a perfect piece of clothing?

Our thread matters. We must stay engaged.

And it’s up to us to keep our families engaged and educated.

Teaching them to not look away when the planes come crashing in but to fall to their knees and pray.

Again — Age appropriately.

We don’t want our kids afraid to get on an airplane.
But there comes a time when they need to know and see the truth.
To know its real.
Not in the salacious way the New York Post did this past week but thoughtfully and carefully.

They need honest truth.

I heard this illustrated beautifully just last week on The Doc Thompson Show;

Doc was discussing the HBO series, Game of Thrones, with Bonfire Host Andrew Herzog and Blaze Radio producer Kal Elsebai.

Kal who watches Game of Thrones, argued that the graphic nature of the show was historically accurate for the medieval times in which the series is set.

Andrew made the point that while he respected the need to honestly share the history of the time period — the writers and producers could easily convey the horrible evilness of it all without the graphic imagery.

I don’t watch Game of Thrones — but everyone I know that does (and enjoys the series) says the same thing — It gets pretty rough sometimes.

So Church — I think that is where we find ourselves today.

In a world and nation incredibly blessed;

But it gets pretty rough sometimes.

And we can’t survive these rough waters — nor can we save our children from the storm — by shutting ourselves below deck and ignoring the rain as it pounds against the hull of the ship.

Eventually the water will seep in and start to rise — forcing us to act or simply stay below deck and drown.

Where I’m standing the water is at least waist deep — how about you?

It’s time for bold education — honest conversation and a renewed conviction with our kids — our friends and our families that only The Truth will set us free and set things right;