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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for September 9, 2009
“Choose Your Child’s Water Fountain Carefully”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
She walked down the hall toward the water fountain.
When you walk to the water fountain, you never think that a life-changing moment is about to happen; especially when you’re only ten years old.
At the water fountain she talked with her two best friends, Mandy and Katie, about the latest candy craze to hit Crestview Elementary School: Sour Patch Kids.
Suddenly they were surrounded by a bunch of fifth grade boys.
Now remember, this is just a group of ten year olds at a school water fountain, a seemingly innocuous moment. But watch what happened.
The boys started joking about which of the girls was sexually attractive, who was hot and who wasn’t, and who was more “developed.”
And Lesly Ludy wasn’t, according to her book “Authentic Beauty.”*
“Hey,” said one of the boys, “check out this ugly chick – she’s flatter than the plains of Kansas!”
In that unexpected moment, a seed of doubt was planted in Lesly’s mind, watered with a drop of insecurity.
“Maybe men would always see me as ugly and undesirable,” she said. “Maybe I was not pretty enough or talented enough or vivacious enough. Maybe in order to be found attractive…I needed to change.”
So over the next couple of years, Lesly says she poured her energies into making herself as desirable as possible to the opposite sex.
“I was surrounded by a culture that was constantly pushing this agenda,” she said, “that you need to have a sexual attitude as a young woman. You need to flaunt your figure and be flirtatious and be seductive and be sensual. By the time I was probably 12, in middle school I just played right into it. I acted the part of being flirtatious and sexual and seductive and encouraged that kind of behavior from guys.”
By the age of fifteen, Lesly said, “I found myself being molded into the kind of girl the world expected me to be. The next season of my life was the most hellish I have ever experienced. I had listened to the voice of the culture and become the young woman it convinced me to be.”
When I hear Lesly’s story, my big question is, where were her parents?
She says, “I think my parents knew that I was slipping away from the values that they had instilled in me growing up, but I don’t think they understood what I was truly exposed to.”
Now let me say this. Parents, you may be like Lesly’s parents. You may not know what your child is being exposed to.
And as a father of four, I fully realize you can’t follow your kids around all day and hold their hand.
But here is what you can do. You can minimize the risk.
Yes, our children will be exposed to things, but we can minimize the risk.
One of the best things we did for our children was send them to a Christian school. I know it’s expensive. For most people it’s a big sacrifice. Maybe you end up driving an older car and living in less of a house, but if that’s what it takes, I say do it.
I know Christian schools aren’t perfect, but you are minimizing the risk. Your daughter is less likely to be treated like a pre-teen sex object at a Christian school. She is less likely to adopt worldly values at a Christian school.
Lesly Ludy is less likely to have had that encounter at the water fountain at a Christian school. Maybe she wouldn’t have sacrificed so much of herself for the boys at a Christian school.
Your child is more likely to keep their innocence longer at a Christian school.
First Corinthians 13:7 says that love always protects. When we love our children, we protect them. And that means minimizing risk.
And it’s not just at school. What about when they go over to a friend’s house?
You know what? Your child can’t just go to everyone’s house. You have to protect them. You have to minimize the risk of them losing their innocence in various areas of life.
What happens when your seven-year-old goes to the friend’s house where the big brother has pornography under his bed?
What happens when your nine-year-old stays at a friend’s house where every cable channel is unblocked?
I just heard this week about a woman who was exposed to same-sex porn as a child and it helped send her life careening down a hellish path.
And what about night spending? Does your child really have to spend the night? Can’t they just visit then come home? How well do you know these people? Even their cousins?
And you know what? You can’t just hire the first babysitter that comes along.
And don’t think that every relative is safe. How many terrible stories come out years later about Aunt and Uncle So-And-So?
It may sound like I’m being paranoid, but I’m just trying to get you to open your eyes to your responsibility as a parent, and that is to protect your child, minimize the risk, and prevent their exposure to certain things.
If Lesly doesn’t have that water fountain moment, maybe the next few years of her life don’t become “hellish,” as she described it.
You see, mom and dad, things happen at water fountains. Things happen in the most seemingly innocuous moments. It doesn’t mean we keep our children away from every water fountain, but it does mean we choose their water fountains carefully.
It’s about minimizing the risk.
It’s about protecting our children; because, like the Bible says, love always protects.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
* You can read excerpts from Lesly Ludy’s book here: http://shortcovers.com/shortcovers/Authentic-Beauty/sc-sDS0Wd3yQ0eo6HfzHkToVg/page5.html#2
You can read or listen to the interview with Lesly on Family Life Today here: http://www.familylife.com/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=dnJHKLNnFoG&b=3832113&ct=7323137
© 2009 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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