Preservation of Innocence

Many have pondered the impact of modern conveniences on the speed of life. No longer is mainstream America characterized by the simplicity and ease of life that we saw in Mayberry. The information age has increased our speed, capability, productivity, and communicability – you would think the result would be the ability to jump off the spinning wheel, relax, and enjoy some of the more important things in life. However, these improvements have only increased the speed at which we must react in order to remain competitive.

Not only are adults impacted, but our children are rushed from one activity to another, and they are overloaded with information. Let me rephrase that … they are overloaded with knowledge. One of the most beautiful things about childhood is the innocence about certain things that is preserved only through a lack of knowledge. It has been said that “knowledge is power”, and in many respects I agree. However, knowledge may also replace freedom, purity, and enjoyment with responsibility, temptation, and embarrassment. Childhood innocence is disappearing in a cloud of ill-timed information.

Television can quickly dash childhood innocence, and in my estimation is the greatest threat to the innocence of childhood. Sex, violence, and alcohol are mainstays of programming and commercials. A child watching a family oriented show might easily see a commercial for a racy primetime show or a violent video game. You might treat your family to a G-rated movie, only to sit through 20 minutes of PG13-rated trailers. All the while, your young child is collecting knowledge that generations past may not have gathered until their teenage years.

Running a close second in a race to overexpose our children to age-inappropriate information … other children. They may not be BAD children. They may be children from good Christian homes, and you may know the parents well. However, because the television has become an unsupervised babysitter in many homes, the friends of your children may have been inundated with knowledge that you would fight to shield your children from. Many parents, myself included, have chosen the route of homeschooling – not so much because of the teachers or administration as for the exposure to worldly wise children who do not have the maturity to handle the knowledge they have gained. I pray that my children will gain knowledge of sensitive topics like sex from my wife and I rather than from an immature friend, and I am very deliberate in my attempts to ensure that this occurs.

There are hosts of other means by which our children may be unduly initiated into worldly wisdom, and protecting them requires substantial work, involvement, and keen observation. Eventually, that childlike innocence must fade – but by postponing that time until they are equipped to handle the knowledge in a Godly fashion should be the goal of every parent.