A Book No One Would Read
As you read this, know that I am not sad, depressed or hopeless. I’m full of peace and the joy of the LORD. I’m also sitting with the LORD about what can be done to turn things around in our society. Our need for a Savior is the most important need of our lives; always has been and always will be. Our need for Wisdom, which is found in the Holy Spirit of God, is at an all time high.
I woke up this morning with my heart CRYING out, “WAKE UP O SLEEPER”….Wisdom calls aloud outside; she raises her voice in the open squares. “How long, you ‘simple ones,’ will you love simplicity? Scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. I have called and you refused. I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke.” (Proverbs 1)
This Proverb goes on to say that wisdom will “laugh at your calamity and mock you when terror comes in like a storm and destruction like a whirlwind.” You will then call out to wisdom but she will not answer. You will seek wisdom but not find her because you hated knowledge, did not choose the fear of the LORD and despised her words of rebuke.
I was for a long time a simple one loving my simplicity. I looked for the shortcuts, the easy road and the path of least resistance and I suffered. What you love is not evidenced by what you say but by how you live. The truth is that my simple minded ways led me to a great deal of suffering and although I said I hated it, I didn’t turn from it.
I woke up to the image of holding the ankles of the young people in my life as they walk on the road to destruction sobbing and begging them to listen, but as though I said nothing and they were unaware of my presence they continued on the path they were on, shoulders held high in prideful ignorance of where that road leads. Destruction.
I could write an entire book this morning if I’d let myself but the problem is, the only ones who would read it are those who are holding the ankles of those who don’t know they need it. To write the book in my heart would be as the saying goes, “preaching to the choir.”
Preaching to the choir = to advocate something to people who already share one’s convictions about its merits or importance.
If I’m gonna preach to the choir, I’ll save some time and make it a mini-sermon (blog) intended to encourage you to KEEP SINGING!
I’m TIRED of hearing about young people who are coming down with preventable, lifelong, debilitating autoimmune conditions like chronic fatigue and life altering conditions like diabetes because they destroy their adrenal system by abusing sugar and caffeinated energy drinks, coffee and soda. By the time these young people are forty years old, the crutches they have used to keep them awake when they should be asleep no longer do what they promise and debilitating fatigue sets in.
In addition to the obvious adrenal fatigue, long-term effects from high caffeine, sugar and stimulants can lead to heart problems like high blood pressure, arrhythmia and cardiac arrest, anxiety, insomnia, digestive issues, weight gain, kidney stones and mental health concerns. Chronic overuse strains organs, disrupts sleep, mood, metabolism and raises the risk of other chronic diseases and dependency. They affect your cardiovascular system, your nervous system, your digestive system, your metabolic system and your mental health.
If these bad habits are stopped soon enough, there is hope for the body to regenerate those damaged cells and restore a person to a state of wholeness and health. It seems at times people have pushed past the point of no return. The damage from chronic ignorance and rebellion at some point seems irreversible.
I sound like a REALLY old person right now, I know, but do you have any idea what you’re doing to your kidneys? I’m tired of hearing about 40 year olds who need dialysis. You can’t live without your kidneys. You know what the leading cause of kidney failure is? Diabetes and high blood pressure! Any idea how much sugar is in those caffeine loaded energy drinks you love? And you say, “I drink the zero calorie kind.” Do you have any idea what ALL those ingredients on that can are or what your poor liver and kidneys have to do to clean up the liquid you’re consuming like it’s water?
“My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding….discression will preserve you, understanding will keep you….fear the LORD and depart from evil, it will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones…do not detest correction for whom the LORD loves, He corrects, just as the father the son in whom he delights.” (From Proverbs 1 and 2)
Seems like every other young person I know has a mental health label; anxiety, depression, bipolar, borderline personality disorder etc. Nearly every parent I know is fearful about the lack of mental health professionals in our communities. It is estimated that 1 in 5 young people in the US have a current diagnosable mental health condition with anxiety and depression being the most common and that doesn’t include the COUNTLESS others who have not sought treatment for the same.
ADHD is being diagnosed and medicated like a gumball machine at the mall. Put a quarter in and you’re guaranteed a gumball. I don’t believe doctors intend to be reckless and one might say “if the shoe fits, wear it” but my own journey with bipolar and ADHD have me wondering how many of these diagnoses like mine were caused by my own ungodly thinking.
“The enemy has come only to steal, kill and destroy.
I (Jesus) have come that they might have life and have it abundantly.”
(John 10:10)
Parents, if it appears that ANYTHING in your life or your children’s life is being taken from them, it is NOT God doing it. It is our own ignorance and rebellion which is being influenced by satan, an enemy intent on stealing, killing and destroying us and our families. Jesus gave us authority over him and ALL his demons, but it is only walking with Him in His way that releases that authority to have an abundant life.
I understand the desire to throw your hands up when it comes to your kids, I’ve done it and to my own children’s disservice. There is an age of accountability, and I don’t know what it is, but there is an age where our kids become responsible for their own choices and the devastating consequences of those choices will belong to them, but while your children are young enough for you to have authority over them, exercise that authority.
Get sleep.
Don’t buy your kids (or yourself) energy drinks and sugary coffee drinks on the way to school because they’re exhausted. Insist on a reasonable bedtime and do whatever you have to do to limit what keeps them from sleeping. Lock phones, tablets and computers in a safe in your bedroom closet if you need to.
Your kids need sleep and so do you.
Newborns (0-3 months old): 14-17 hours (including naps)
Infants (4-12 months): 12-16 hours (including naps)
Toddlers (1-2 years): 11-14 hours (including naps)
Preschoolers (3-5 years): 10-13 hours (including naps)
School-aged children (6-12 years): 9-12 hours
Teenagers (13-18 years): 8-10 hours
Adults (26-64 years): 7-9 hours
Older adults (65+ years): 7-8 hours
Drink water.
When I was a kid, there was half an aisle at the grocery store with sodas, bottled waters, sports drinks and shelf stable juices. The other day when I went to the store I counted four aisles FULL of beverages from the front of the store to the back of the store, not including the dairy case, the refrigerated juices like orange juice or the very large alcohol selection. Liquid calories and liquid chemicals everywhere!
Beverages, including dairy, make up nearly 60% of some major grocery retailer’s sales. It seems insane (very foolish, irrational or strange) to me but true that many people, YOUNG and OLD, view all liquids the same believing that there is very little difference between drinking pure water, for instance, and a can of soda.
EVERY liquid you consume MUST be filtered through your kidneys. No one thinks about their kidneys until they are at the ER with the excruciating pain of kidney disease or kidney stones.
According to the American Kidney Fund an estimated 35.5 million Americans have kidney disease, 815,000 are living with kidney failure, 555,000 are receiving dialysis and it is growing at an alarming rate. 1 in 7 or 14% of American adults have kidney disease and 9 out of 10 people with kidney disease are unaware they have it!
By allowing our children to buy into the current culture of excess sugar, excess caffeine and less than adequate sleep, we are killing them.
I could go on and talk to you about the alarming number of our children who are vaping, drinking alcohol to excess, addicted to pornography (even our girls), having casual sexual encounters for fun and how that is leading to chronic lung issues, shame that will follow them for life, sexually transmitted diseases some of which are incurable and suicide attempts. I could share alarming statistics about the use of our screens and what it’s doing to our eyes and the volume everywhere from headphones to church services that are permanently damaging our hearing, but I am FULLY aware that I am preaching to the choir.
The root of EVERY poor choice we make began with a seed. Whether that thought was planted with intention or unintentionally, we then watered, tended to and cared for until it matured from a seed to a full blown plant. This will be a conversation for another day, but the root of every poor choice must be discovered and pulled up if we will ever truly be free from the thought that birthed it.
As an authority figure, you can speak truth in love as the LORD leads without nagging or harping on a subject but the MOST POWERFUL way to speak truth is to live it.
Ask the LORD to give you a desire for pure water.
Ask the LORD to help you prioritize not only sleep, but rest.
Ask the LORD to give you wisdom with the technology you engage with.
Ask the LORD to help you temper your unhealthy desires for foods that are slowly but surely chipping away at your health.
More than anything, if you have influence in the lives of young people, with tears in my eyes I am begging you to keep singing. The enemy PROWLS around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:8) His ONLY desire is to steal, kill and destroy. (John 10:10) We are making it easy.