Wake Up, Look Up

Hello, everyone, thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode, we're asking the question, are we making our kids screen addicts? Now, I found an article that came out recently in The Atlantic, fascinating, and I shouldn't be surprised.

One of the authors was Jonathan Haidt, who's done a ton of writing about kids in the digital age and anxious parenting. I couldn't recommend his books and articles more. They're incredibly challenging.

But here's the basic premise. A national poll of kids ages 8 to 12 shows, listen to this, that they still value outside unstructured playtime with friends more than being on a screen. In other words, overwhelmingly, kids are telling us, I don't want to be on a screen.

I want to be outside with my friends doing whatever we think of. Now, you might say, well, hold on a second. That is inconsistent with my experience.

Everywhere I look, I see kids on screens. But what's interesting is that studies show that kids will say the number one reason they're on screens is anxious parents. Parents don't let them go outside and roam with their friends.

Parents don't let them walk here, ride their bike there, and go out on an adventure. Parents want them at home. Parents want them safe, air quotes, and so as a result, if I'm home by myself, might as well be on a screen.

It is not kids' compulsion to screens that's driving their activity. It's parents' fear-driven, compulsive parenting that says that a good childhood is a safe one. And so I must keep my kid where I can see him, keep him around, even if that means keeping them on a screen.

Again, data is telling us kids are homesick for a world they've never known, a world of freedom, a world of friendship, a world of unsupervised independence and play. So I want to challenge you with this, parents. What if our kids are on screens because of us? What if they're not the problem? What if we are the problem? Let me push you a little bit in that direction.

First, let me start with this. The Bible teaches overwhelmingly that God is sovereign. He is over life and death.

He's decided already how many days I'm going to live. The end of my life is known. And that doesn't mean I get to go out and be reckless.

Jesus himself would say, you don't tempt God. But in the same way, it means I don't have to worry that a decision I make today is going to shorten or lengthen my life. God is in control.

My safety, my security is ultimately bound up in his plan and purpose for my life. Second, let me say this. The reason we're struggling with sovereignty, the reason we're struggling with safety is not because our kids are on their screens.

It's because we are. Look, the world does have some danger in it. And the truth is, because of social media, because of YouTube, because of the 24-hour news cycle, we know about all the danger in the world.

Most of us live in communities that are safe. But what happens is a kid gets abducted in Topeka, Kansas, something that has very little to do, if anything at all, with me or my family, something that I wouldn't have known about 30 years ago. But because I read about it on Twitter, now I know.

And it produces a fear response in how I lead my own children. It's what we're taking in on our screens that are pushing our kids to get on theirs. And let me challenge that with a little theology of childhood.

The first thing is that God designed children for freedom and growth. I love what Luke 2.40 says about Jesus when he was growing up. It says, the child grew and became strong.

There's a lot packed in that sentence, because how do you grow and become strong? Growth is natural, but strength, strength is learned experience. You have to skin your knee. You have to climb a tree too high and try to figure out how to get down.

You have to learn how to deal with your best friend when he shoves you because you made him angry. There's a whole world of strength waiting for our kids and the adventures that are outside, and even navigating a little bit of freedom. There's strength in walking to the grocery store to pick up some milk for mom.

You're going to encounter obstacles that you have to learn to deal with. That's part of growing up. The second thing is that fear often becomes a false idol.

Second Timothy 1.7 says that God gave us not a spirit of fear. Fear says that if we play it safe, we can control our kids' future. You cannot.

You cannot lengthen your child's life. You cannot make it any better. You are really more powerless than you care to admit.

The right response to powerlessness isn't a fearful control, it's a free releasing. Your child's safety is not ultimately up to you, it's up to God. Fear gives you the false sense that you're in control, but you're really not.

The third thing is that wisdom is the balance of risk and responsibility. I think that's what Proverbs 22.6 means when it says to train up a child in the way he should go. Certainly, we don't want to tell our kids they can go wherever, with whoever, and do whatever they want.

Somewhere in the balance of risk and responsibility is actual wisdom. The thing is, most of us are valuing so-called responsibility to the point of fear. And without risk, children don't develop in the way they need to.

They don't have the childhood they were meant to have. And I'll just say this. Play, believe it or not, is part of God's design for children.

Zechariah 8.5 describes a healthy city this way. The streets of the city are full of boys and girls playing. That's actually a sign that a community is doing well.

Believe it or not, one of the ways Christians can be salt and light in their neighborhood is to release their kids under the sovereignty of God, instead of fearfully holding onto them as though we're actually in control. Listen, if 10, 15 years from now, our children grow up anxious and depressed, if they cannot leave their homes and they cannot get away from their screens, it will not be about the weaknesses of their generation. It will be the fruit of scared, anxious parents.

Let your kids go outside. Let them discover the wonder of childhood and give control to God. They can trust Him, and so can you.

Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

This episode of Wake Up, Look Up was produced by Marcus Cunningham and Hallie Andrews. Our topic researcher is Shanna Young. This episode was directed by Rima Saleh.

Our podcast coordinator is Hallie Andrews. Our production manager and audio wizard is Marcus Cunningham, with tech and engineering support from Matthew Adel and Landon Hall. I'm your host, Zach Weihrauch.

Join us for the next episode of Wake Up, Look Up.