Protecting Your Family On the Internet

Newsweek magazine’s recent article “The Sex Addiction Epidemic” addresses our nation’s obsession with sex. It is a reality piece, which asserts that sexual addiction “wrecks marriages, destroys careers, and saps self-worth,” yet Americans are increasingly becoming sexually addicted and much of it is done at home.

When I think of spring cleaning, I think of my home and doing closets and cleaning out drawers, but how often do we think of cleaning the places our minds spend time?

I used to believe that the one safe place on earth was our home. Well, not anymore! With the advent of the Personal Computer and certain new cells/phones, our home, and yours, are now the central target of the enemy!

In our home, we (and even our young adults) have felt an urgency about this real threat and have raced to address it, not just from a technical side, but by concentrating on the heart. For the heart is where LIFE or DEATH are determined.

Continue reading over at my Like A Mustard Seed to see what we did to protect the hearts of our family.

If we fill our hearts with the word of God, we will be healthy and strong. Let us rededicate our hearts to God.

There is no short-cut. It takes time and effort to allow God to write His law on our hearts. Let us listen to sermons, sing the Word together, and read the Bible or listen to Bible tapes each day, instead of spending time browsing the internet (sports, news, blogs, pinterest, Facebook, etc.) or playing computer/video games.

“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” ~Psalm 119: 11

May the Word of God dwell richly in our hearts and in our souls. May His Word be in our mouths and in our hearts, that we may do it. Let us teach the word to our children, talk of it when we sit in our house, when we ride in the car, when we lie down, and when we rise up. Let us write the commands of God on the tablets of our hearts, that He might direct our paths. Only then shall we be people of God.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life…Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you.” ~Proverbs 4: 23, 25

So, how do we spring clean our minds and keep them that way?

Having come out of the worldly culture myself at age 31 with many scars and consequences, I am NOT naive and don’t want you to be!

First, we need to be armed with knowledge! If we are to stem the tide to the doorposts of our own home, we must be savvy and vigilant; the enemy is looking for any way he can to sabotage our best efforts or distract us from our two greatest missions: our marriage and our children.

~Know what the threat does to you and those you love: Read 5 ways using pornography damages us. It is highly important to understand this and the implications.

~Do not deceive yourself:

You cannot take fire into your bosom, and not be burned [Proverbs 6:27]. If you eat rottenness, you will get sick. If you fill your mind with rottenness, you will have a sick mind. If you look at pornography, you will have a pornographic mind. If you are doing this, stop before you destroy yourself. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he”. [Proverbs 23:7]. Jesus said: “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things”. [Matthew 12:35].

~Know the temptation will come. Have a plan!

“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” ~1 Corinthians 10: 13

Temptation is very much a heart issue, and there are physical things we can do to protect our hearts—by exercising wisdom and discretion.

• It is not wise to look at a person lustfully who is not your spouse.
• It is not wise to linger in conversation and divulge intimate details of your life to someone who is not your spouse. (Chat rooms, etc.)
• If you know that you have a certain temptation, it is wise and prudent to take every precaution you can to resist.

“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” ~Ephesians 6: 11

Job made a covenant with his eyes not to look lustfully at a woman (~Job 31:1). If a righteous man like Job (who chose to have only one wife in a day when polygamy was acceptable) had to take extra precautions, of course, we should as well.

~Use accountability as a guardrail:

Years ago, we had friends who shared with me that they used Covenant Eyes to monitor what they saw on the Internet, and the program would send an e-mail detailing all the sites they visited to an Accountability Partner. This was just one of the ways that they tried to safeguard their hearts; knowing that a parent, or even friend, would see every site they visited encouraged them to stay away from what could eventually ruin their lives and their reputations.

Before we found Covenant Eyes, we tired 4 or 5 other things: parental controls and filters, but none of them were water-tight to the internet-savvy child. This scripture is so pointed to parents:

It was such a blessing that we could incorporate protection when our children were young. When children reach a certain age, they start to explore their boundaries, looking for independence which is all part of growing up. By giving them an a Scriptural and practical understanding of why we were guarding our hearts enabled them to see the dangers and buy into the truth before they stumbled into something. Seeing us model this had a very powerful influence.

I firmly believe that the difference between those who wander into sinful territory and those that do not is that that the latter safeguarded their hearts, took God’s escape routes along the highway of temptation, and did whatever they could to keep their focus on Christ. We (and many of our friends) purposefully use Covenant Eyes to add an extra layer of accountability in guarding their hearts, and it has proved successful for us—it can for you, too.

“I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me.” ~Psalm 101: 3

” Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.” ~1 Corinthians 6: 18

(Please see the link-ups for the week in my sidebar…thank you!)

~ Jacqueline