Wake Up, Look Up

[Music]

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 is your kid going to

jail this is prompted by a Washington

Post article that was looking at the

rise of online threats from teenagers

towards their school It's looking at one

two week section after a particular

school shooting happened in Appalache

High School Uh after that in two weeks

after that there were 500 arrests of

teenagers who made online threats

against their school everything from uh

I'm gonna shoot up the school to a list

of kids they were going to kill to bomb

threats and things of that nature Now

overwhelmingly these instances were just

kids saying stupid things on the

internet They had no plan no weapons no

real animous just responding to what was

in the news Probably some attention

seeking and being ridiculous But

nonetheless because law enforcement is

increasingly blamed after the fact when

a school shooting takes place they're

beginning to take these online comments

seriously In fact one sheriff in Florida

swore uh publicly to his community that

if your child makes an online threat we

are not only going to show up at your

house we're going to arrest them we're

going to perpwalk them and we're going

to make sure that it lives on the

internet forever That's because uh law

enforcement can't assume that a kid

making a comment online is a joke They

have to chase it down It actually

results in millions of dollars and both

law enforcement efforts and school

security efforts to respond to threats

uh annually Uh this is a big

conversation not just about violence and

school shooting but also about teaching

kids raising kids in an internet era

Teaching them the importance of being

careful about what they say That that

the line between thinking something and

tweeting or posting or sharing something

needs to be a lot further than it

usually is for them Now you know on this

podcast I'm on the record that I don't

think your children should be on social

media But if you disagree with me and

you decide to let them use social media

you need to at least make sure you're

having conversations with them about a

few things the Bible reinforces time and

time again Like for example the power of

words and the consequences You know the

book of James James compares the tongue

to a wildfire I mean his point is that

the wrong word at the wrong time to the

wrong person can set your world ablaze

And that was by the way what happened

for each one of these kids who are

sitting in their pajamas at 4:00 in the

morning when the police come and knock

on their door Words really do have

consequences They really can shape our

world Uh we also have to be mindful by

the way of the stuff our kids are taking

in Even if it's the news about school

shooting this that we are processing

with them but television movies music

Look Proverbs tells us to guard our

heart Proverbs 4 because from it flow

the springs of life What goes into your

child's mind and heart will eventually

come out So when they make a stupid

comment online and the police are at

your door and you wonder how did we get

here well you got there by letting them

take in content that was slowly and

surely shaping them in a negative

direction The truth is daily disciplehip

of your children parents is your job

Proverbs 22 says to train a child up in

the way he should go and he won't depart

from it But that training is a daily

kind of thing Deuteronomy 6 put the

scriptures on your doorpost your

doorways your eyelids your forehead your

hands saturating your home with

meaningful and intentional conversations

about the holiness of God about sin

about loving our neighbor about violence

about anger about what to do when we're

bitter towards someone else These are

the kind of day in and dayout

conversations that aren't happening in

these homes and you better make sure are

happening in your homes Look Galatians 6

says "Do not be deceived God is not

mocked Whatever you sow that you're also

going to reap." The truth is if we sew

parental laziness if we if we outsource

shaping and molding our children then

the next door the police knock on might

just be yours And when that happens

don't ask who can I blame Look in the

mirror The disciplehip work that you

need to do to avoid that outcome starts

today And by the way that's not just

true for parents It's true for

children's ministry volunteers for youth

ministry volunteers for grandma and

grandpa uncle and aunts older men and

women who have to begin to speak into

the lives of younger people because no

one else ever thought their kid was

going to tweet that and go to jail but

they were surprised and you shouldn't be

Words have consequences Teach your kids

Hey thanks so much for watching this

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Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!