0:00:03 – Speaker 1
Hey, this is Mandy and Kim with nextTalk, where we are passionate about keeping kids safe in the digital world.
0:00:09 – Speaker 2
Did you know? We have tens of thousands of listeners in 60 countries. It’s truly amazing, crazy.
0:00:15 – Speaker 1
Only God.
0:00:16 – Speaker 2
And, as a non-profit, everything we do at nextTalk is supported by people just like you.
0:00:21 – Speaker 1
Be a part of changing the culture of conversation in your home and around the globe by making a donation today.
0:00:28 – Speaker 2
Go to NextTalkorg and click on Give and check out our resources while you’re there.
0:00:32 – Speaker 1
More than cyber parenting conversations to connect. We recently saw an uproar about the Satan shoes. You guys have heard about this right.
0:00:42 – Speaker 2
Pretty crazy really.
0:00:44 – Speaker 1
And the little NASX video about giving Satan a lap dance. Now I think I’m saying his name right. I’m not sure. I’m just a mom trying to figure it all out, right?
0:00:54 – Speaker 2
I thought it was a little NAS, but you know what? We’ll just go with it.
0:00:57 – Speaker 1
What did I say?
0:00:59 – Speaker 2
Little NAS.
0:01:00 – Speaker 1
You know what? I think you’re right. I think it’s not us. Anyway, you guys know what we’re talking about.
0:01:06 – Speaker 2
The point of it here is that for those of you who may not know about this singer, he had a hit a few years ago, old Town Road. There’s even a video of him performing it in elementary school and the kids are going crazy and they know all the words. I mean it was kind of a big deal, that song. Even my kids knew about it. My kids learned about the song and got to know it from playing on the switch the just dance thing. It’s just really catchy and fun.
0:01:30 – Speaker 1
It’s a great little tune but, as you are probably aware, many people were outraged because he had a lot of kid followers, so people were saying why are you going to put this sexual kind of content out for the kids? Again, in the new video, he was giving a lap dance to Satan. It was pretty sexual. As you’ve seen it, he responded to some of his critics on Twitter. Anytime there’s like a controversy like this, what I like to do is go to the person’s Twitter page, their Instagram page.
I want to see what they’re saying to people you know sometimes I don’t always trust the new stories, and so I went to his Twitter page and this is what he tweeted out. He said this is a quote. I made the decision to create the music video. I am an adult. I am not going to spend my entire career trying to cater to your children. That is your job.
0:02:24 – Speaker 2
Wow, bold statement.
0:02:26 – Speaker 1
Yeah, and I mean he does have a point. You know, I for me, I always think about the people following me and how I want to move them closer to Jesus and not farther away. You know, I think about anyone who’s listening to my voice, like it is in my soul to make sure that I’m stewarding that. Stewarding that, well, right, but not everybody has that goal and he does have the personal choice to make what kind of music he wants to make, right?
0:02:57 – Speaker 2
Well, and his goal may be just to make music and he’s not worried about the influence. So to him that makes sense.
0:03:04 – Speaker 1
There was a lot of criticism coming his way, which is understandable. I mean, it was a shock value, for sure. It was definitely like click bait of everything that was trending on social media, and so he continued to kind of reply, and most of his replies, like, I can’t even read on the air because it contained a lot of X-rated use of the F word. Yeah yeah. But there was another tweet that kind of drew my attention and I want to read that for you. It says I spent my entire teenage years hating myself because of the Beep SH word. Y’all preached what happened to me because I was gay. So I hope you are mad, stay mad. Feel the same anger you teach us to have towards ourselves.
0:03:54 – Speaker 2
Man that hits in a whole different way when I saw that tweet.
0:03:58 – Speaker 1
I saw the controversy surrounding this differently, because I saw pain and I saw hurt and that changed how I would have responded. Thankfully, I didn’t, because I try not to tweet out or post when I’m angry. Of course, I think we’re all guilty of it, right, we’re all guilty and I understand the outrage, like I understand why Christians were like what? We’re worshiping Satan now and now we’re giving Satan a lot, like I get it in all those kids that saw the video. My heart grieves for them, right. But I think we also have to realize that this person is a person and he has a story and there’s pain behind it and so there’s a reason why he may not care to upset Christians or he may not care that he’s going to hurt kids using his voice on this platform.
0:04:51 – Speaker 2
When I read his words and really thought about it, I imagined times when I have been really broken, and if people lashed out at me in that brokenness, it would have pushed me further away, and so I totally hear what you’re saying. It’s a both and you know we’re upset about what he’s doing, but also having this compassion and trying to see the hurt that he’s feeling.
0:05:13 – Speaker 1
And there’s so much to unpack here. I mean, we could talk about the church and how we need to do a better job dealing with sexuality, you know. And nobody’s saying that we compromise our beliefs that marriage between a man and a woman. Nobody’s saying that here. But what we are saying is, you know, we cannot cling to the truth of marriages between a man and a woman and forget the truth of loving our neighbor. You know it’s we have to do both. We have to do both really well as Christians. And it’s difficult in this culture to do that, and I think that’s why most people avoid it or they just shut it down, because they don’t want to engage in the conversation, because it is difficult.
0:05:52 – Speaker 2
Absolutely. There’s so much we could dive into here. If your kid is struggling, you can go check out our show just called Sexuality and there’s some great Bible verses on there and some talking points and we just did a show called how Do I Respond If my Kid Is Questioning their Sexuality. So go look into those if that’s something that you are walking through. But on this show we really want to focus on Christians reacting to culture, because there is so much to react to right now. We want to make sure that the way we respond and react is honoring to Jesus.
0:06:24 – Speaker 1
So I think the first thing is, you know, avoid reacting with anger. And this is again you see something, a clip or a statement on social media and you just get fired up and we all do it. We all are guilty of this right. I think I, especially in the line of work that I’m in, because I see I work with so many families and cry with them because of their kids being exposed to things and then it creates so many issues. So I hear the outrage, like I get so upset. But I’ve learned through this process that if I just respond in anger, it creates more divisiveness. It’s not helpful, it’s not moving toward a loving resolution or even somebody, maybe getting somebody on the opposite side to think about. Oh, maybe this is something I should consider. You know this different point of view. But when I respond in anger, it just feels their fire that we’re crazy, christians are crazy.
That’s exactly what they think that’s what they think. They think we’re hypersensitive and you know little old church ladies over here clutching our pearls, and that’s the vision that people have in the culture of us, and so when we respond in that way, it almost like solidifies that stereotype.
0:07:49 – Speaker 2
It’s so true and it’s so easy to do in the moment because of those emotions and those feelings are real. If you type them, tweet them, send them, whatever you might post them, then it’s out there for the world to see your first reaction and, honestly, something you and I have talked about many times when you feel those initial feelings, process them with your spouse or your dear friend or someone in your inner circle where you can Get it out and say what you need to say, but where you’re not possibly pushing people away from the kingdom.
0:08:22 – Speaker 1
How many times have I sent you a tweet?
0:08:24 – Speaker 2
I want to send out Kim, and how many times have I said nope?
0:08:29 – Speaker 1
No, no, no, you’re like. You’re right, I agree with you, but do not sit.
0:08:33 – Speaker 2
Do not present, delete, delete.
0:08:37 – Speaker 1
You need an accountability partner. What I do want to say, though, is we are not saying you can’t speak out. That’s not what we’re saying here at it. All what we’re saying is that initial response filled with Frustration and anger and bitterness and just being mad. Right, take that and pray about it and process what God is showing you. Dig into the word, and he may show you. I know many times, when he calls me to speak out against an issue, he will. He will give me the words to say in a loving tone, once I pray through it and I’m like okay, this is how I’m gonna approach this. I can’t stay silent because it’s wrong and I’m gonna speak out about it, but I’m gonna do it in a way that honors Jesus and the unconditional love that he represents.
0:09:25 – Speaker 2
I know. When I feel really strongly about something, I want my words to be effective and not fall on deaf ears, and when I take the time to breathe, process and pray, god always gives me the right words to say. But when I react in anger, just like with my kids, it never goes well. We can make a difference in the world if we take the time to let Jesus tell us how to respond.
0:09:50 – Speaker 1
Amen sister, Amen. Okay, point number two. You know we need to make sure that we don’t expect the worldly culture to model Christian behavior.
0:10:02 – Speaker 2
Mm-hmm.
0:10:03 – Speaker 1
So I know that as the world it gets more broken and we see more sin, right, I know that as Christians, it grieves our hearts for sure, a hundred percent, especially the fact we’re raising kids in this world and we know our grandkids. Yes in this world right.
0:10:20 – Speaker 2
Jesus, jesus comes, jesus come.
0:10:24 – Speaker 1
Let’s Jesus come. We got a girl in our team that always says that. Right. But one thing that I talked to my kids about often is you know, the Bible is clear that Christians will be persecuted for their faith and that the world will move farther and farther away from God and it will continue to get worse. And the fact that we’re actually Continuing to see the divisiveness is proof that the Bible is real.
0:10:52 – Speaker 2
That’s so true, that’s a good word.
0:10:54 – Speaker 1
In fact, I love second Timothy 3. This is verses 1 through 4. It says in the last days there will be very difficult times, for people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents mmm, and okay, I added that and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. Wow, that is just some truth right there. Right, they will be unloving and Unforgiving. They will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good.
0:11:41 – Speaker 2
They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride and love pleasure Rather than God there are so many gems in that Bible verse that are speaking to my heart and Really reflective of the culture right now. I bet I bet a lot of people can relate to that. But I tell you at the end there, when you were speaking and you said Love pleasure rather than God, I could really see that in our culture today, because the world tells our kids and tells us like, whatever feels good, whatever you want to do, whatever sounds like a nice thing for you, go for it, do it. It’s exactly opposite of what scripture tells us to do, but the culture is telling us that’s the way to live and I think we’re gonna see it get worse and worse as Time goes by, and so, as Christians, we’re gonna continually be disappointed with the worldly culture. If we expect something different, it is biblical that things will get worse.
0:12:38 – Speaker 1
I yeah, so just switch your expectations, you know, because we really do get upset when we expect a worldly culture to behave in a Christian manner, Exactly Okay. Last thing and this one’s a biggie, and I think that the person who modeled this the best was Jesus See the hurt. See the hurt. You know. People all around you are struggling and they are doing crazy, weird, hurtful, horrible things. Yes, and even that’s happening even in the church.
0:13:18 – Speaker 2
Oh, so true.
0:13:19 – Speaker 1
With Christian people and I think what we need to remember is every person has a story on why they feel that way and how they’ve gotten there. That doesn’t mean that their story makes them line up with God’s word. I’m not saying that at all. Knowing their history and knowing their story helps us be more empathetic. It helps us see the hurt. You know we see this throughout scripture how Jesus has a way to see people see through their sin and just love them unconditionally, you know. And then once that love is established yes, we see him repeatedly tell people you know, go and send no more. And they do. Their lives are changed because of love, not because Jesus is screaming at them that what they did was wrong.
0:14:07 – Speaker 2
I remember growing up I always heard this saying something like nobody ever argued someone into heaven, which has kind of stuck with me, Like we are not going to convince people to love Jesus and accept him as their personal savior by yelling and arguing with them.
0:14:22 – Speaker 1
That is so true, kim. I don’t know who said that, but it’s so spot on. You know I love getting my kids and the word so that they can really see Jesus’s character and see his love come out in scripture. But recently we have watched a series called the chosen, and to see Jesus and the way he sees the hurt and response to it on the screen has just created so many great conversations in our family. I don’t know if you guys are familiar with the chosen series. Season one is out completely. Season two just launched and they’re doing one show at a time, so I’ve seen the first show. I haven’t seen any of the others, but it’s so good and it’s created so many good conversations and I love the character development in it, the way that Jesus looks at people, and I just absolutely adored how the show portrays Jesus and the way he responds to hurt people.
0:15:25 – Speaker 2
I remember you sharing that with me and I was so excited and so I gathered everybody up and we put it on because I wanted my kids to be able to see what you were describing and, unfortunately, for the age of my kids it might have been a little too fast. It was a little too much for them. But we’re kind of saving it. We tucked it away and we’re going to try it again maybe at the end of this year and see if it’s a good fit. But keep that in mind awesome series for adults and young adults and tweens, I’d say, but with younger ones it may move a little too fast.
0:15:58 – Speaker 1
That’s such a great clarification, kim, because my lens comes from older kids. I have two teenagers, 13 and 17. So I’m glad you clarified that for our listeners. You know, in summary today, a couple things as Christians we must learn to one, avoid reacting with anger. Two, don’t expect the worldly culture to model Christian behavior. And three, see the hurt.
Transcribed by https://podium.page
