Wake Up, Look Up

[Music]

hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach

wrock and today's episode we're asking

the question who are your kids Heroes

this is prompted by a documentary I

watched recently in the New York Times

about social media influencer children

this documentary focused on Two Sisters

in Alabama an 11-year-old and a

12-year-old who have hundreds of

thousands of followers and make tens of

thousands of dollars every month by

going on Instagram Tik Tok Facebook and

telling you uh what products they're

using and what they like about them and

what they don't like about them

influencing that's a new career path in

fact it's gotten so popular this idea

that you could make a living going on

social media and pushing people towards

one product or another that actually 11%

of Jin Z say they are currently

influencers they think of themselves

this way the content they're putting out

into the universe is designed for this

goal 33% of pre-teens in the United

States say that their Chief career

aspiration is being a social media

influenc that's one in three think about

that that is what the influence that is

they finding on Tik Tok and Instagram is

taking them towards in other words it's

not just that some people make a lot of

money as influencers those people are

becoming the heroes of future

Generations the way you and I might have

looked up to musicians or ball players

or authors uh this generation is instead

finding their Heroes on social media I

say that because uh one of the things I

remember reading in a parenting book

that has always stuck out to me many

years ago when I was expecting our first

child uh is that this idea that one of

the key discipleship tools that you have

as a parent is to try to push your kids

towards the right people to want to be

like in other words to help your kids

find the right Heroes because if you're

like me and your kids are getting older

and older you real realiz that your

voice is shrinking somewhat in influence

there are other people out there that

your kids want to be like or learn from

or be guided towards and those people

become huge influences no pun intended

on who your kids become on how they live

on what they say is good and on what

they say is bad which means if you want

to see what your kid is going to look

like in a year find out who they're

listening to today if you want to know

who they're going to be like in 5 years

find out who their heroes are right now

listen I know you've heard me say this

that I know that social media is bad for

your children literally every source is

saying unanimously your kids shouldn't

be on social media but if you're going

to have your kids be on social media

even though you shouldn't if you make

that choice find out who they're paying

the most attention to and I don't mean

grabbing their phone when they're not

looking and scrolling through ask them

listen to what they're talking about

because what you're going to find is

there is some tick tocker some YouTuber

who is your child's hero and while you

are telling your kids to get on their

device so that you can have a little me

time that influencer is making hundreds

of thousands of dollars by convincing

your kids that they're the person they

should be listening too listen God gave

you your children uh Deuteronomy 6 is

the best passage in the Bible on

discipling children it's about

intentionality it's about strategy it's

about fully engaged parents paying

attention to what their kids are doing

do you know who your kids favorite

influencers are do you know whose videos

they're watching whose products they're

buying it very well could be that you're

looking at a Christmas list right now

that is directly traceable back to the

hero your kid is listening to listen get

involved pay attention have

conversations with your kids about who

really is heroic who really is worth

imitating and find a way to steer those

conversations back to Jesus Christ pay

attention because whoever your kids are

listening to is who they're going to end

up like so make sure you're involved hey

thanks so much for watching this episode

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