 news to report tonight out of Stokes County. The school superintendent there shared with us that an eighth grader at Southeastern Stokes Middle School died by suicide this week. The students just started the new year on Monday. We reached out to the young girl's family. They gave us their blessing to share her story. The superintendent says Califag is the student who died. He says the school had extra counselors on campus today for both students and staff. It's been nearly four months since Cornelia Reynolds discovered the unthinkable. Her eight-year-old son, dead in his bedroom, gave her eight-year-old son, dead in his bedroom. It's been nearly four months since Cornelia Reynolds discovered the unthinkable. Her eight-year-old son, dead in his bedroom, gave her eight-year-old son, dead in his bedroom. Gabriel had hanged himself from his bunk bed. He probably didn't want to say, Mom, somebody's bullying or picking on me. You know, he just didn't know how to tell me. One out of four middle school students having suicidal thoughts. She and a star was like most 12-year-olds. She loved art, gymnastics and drawing. She was energetic and fun-loving. A joy to her family. Yet, on July 1st, 2019, she took her own life. This is, without question, one of the more difficult videos that I would ever have to do. It may be for some people, you might feel like it's not as great of a concern, but one if you have children, if you have grandchildren, nieces or nephews, or if you just have information that you might want to give someone that you love, someone that's in your family, this is a growing problem. This issue of suicide and depression, particularly, is a problem. Now, you would think this is a problem. You would think this is a problem. You would think this is a problem. You would think this is a problem. You would think this is a problem. Now, you would think, though, that because we're talking about, in most cases, most suicides are by adults. And so they have gone through different things. And we're going to talk about why adults commit suicide as well. But we need to spend some time talking about children. They are easily, without question, the most vulnerable. We're going to talk about why they are probably the most vulnerable. And when I say the most vulnerable, I even mean over children that are smaller than them. I mean, more than one-year-olds, more than two or three-year-olds. There's a reason why you see this uptick in a certain age group. There's a reason why that particular group is so vulnerable. Tonight at five, the new school year just underway. And already, we are tracking a concerning number of teenage suicides and suicide attempts at our Valley High Schools. There were more suicides last year across the country than in any other year on record. It is now the leading cause of death of young people ages 15 to 24. Now, the reason why somebody, an adult or a child, would want to commit suicide is when the pressure on the inside is not as great as the pressure on the outside. Or simply put the other way around when the pressure on the outside is, and I mean capital I, capital S, is greater on the outside than the pressure on the inside. And it happens, it boils over when, even when it seems when the pressure on the outside even seems like the pressure on the outside is greater than that on the inside. Because sometimes it's not what it looks like, it's just kind of what it feels like. And you've heard the old statement, perception sometimes is reality. Well, when we're dealing with someone's emotional state, that certainly can be the case. The way someone thinks, the way someone feels, that plays into it, especially with these young people. And when I say young people, I mean people that are probably over the age of four or five. And never would you have ever thought about children, little kids committing suicide. I remember in high school there were always some kids that were depressed and some kids thought about committing suicide, but that's high school. But now we've got junior high kids, middle school kids, as well as even elementary. When an eight-year-old or nine-year-old or 10-year-old thinks about it and even acts on killing themselves, what in the world is going through their mind? Well, what it really is, guys, is there is an inability to cope. And I've said this before, if a five-year-old can't cope and he becomes 10, unable to cope, and he becomes 15, unable to cope, then what happens when he's 25? 35, 45. Well, we see what's happening in America and other parts of the world now when you can't cope, when you can't handle things, what do you do? It's going to come out. Your emotions do not stay on the inside. It's how they come out. They're like a valve that kind of governs the speed and the strength at which the emotions come out. Do they all come out all at once? Or have you, as a child or as an adult, figured out a way to cope and let some of these pressures on the inside how they come out, how you deal with them. There's this large inability to cope and to adjust amongst people in the world and even more so children. And we forget about that sometimes because they're kids. Kids just do not cope. I want to, I want to play a clip about a young, a young fella on the Indiana, Illinois board. I think he's in Western Indiana who committed suicide. I think the boy is 10, maybe 11, something like that. I want you to hear what he stated out of the mouth, well his own mouth as in the mess that he left with his parents. Robin and Terry Badger sit wrapped in overwhelming grief. I'm sorry. It covers them like the quilt on their lap, made from the sports jerseys their 13-year-old son Terry has worn since he was 4 years old. His drive was to be an MLB player. But that's never going to happen now. Robin and Terry buried their youngest child yesterday after he took his own life last week leaving a video behind telling his parents why. His exact words were they made fun of me every day and I hate my life and I'm going to take my life because he does not like how he's being pressured how he's being dealt with. Now there's a law that's being put forward. I want to ask you guys this question because by the way it's not just bullying that causes kids to want to kill themselves. That's not the only reason. That's one of the reasons but it's not the only reason. But there's a law that is in place or there's a proposed law. I don't know if it's going to happen or not. It's going to be enacted or what have you. But there's a law that has been proposed that some people say that maybe a law such as this would have helped would help in the future. What do you think? Terry and Robin Badger think House bill 1483 could have saved their son's life under the victim and the bully. If those allegations were found out to be true the victim could switch schools and if they didn't want to it is the bully that would have to go. Now notice that if a child is being bullied in school then it has to be reported and then ultimately in the end if it's not resolved one of two things happened either the child that's being bullied gets to leave and go to another school or the child that's doing the bullying has to leave and go somewhere else. The child that's being bullied if he goes somewhere else well then what's the likelihood that there are going to be bullies at the next school? Very likely. You know why? Because that's what kids do. Kids bully. You know why kids bully because they're human beings? We do that. Now let me pause for a minute. I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to we do that. Now let me pause for a second and I want to say something that might shock you in that I'm going to have to explain it. I am not a fan of all of these anti-bullying campaigns. And it's going to sound kind of strange. Why, well, because kids need to learn how to cope. The problem that we have is that we've got children who have never been placed in uncomfortable positions and then when they get placed in those uncomfortable positions they don't know Sometimes we talk, we have fun about it. We talk about our generation or this generation or that generation or previous generation, how we dealt with so many things. Lately though, when you look at the children today and you compare them, and yet we have fun with it. You know, when you look at little kids today, you give them a rotary phone and tell them to make a phone call on it. They have no idea what to do. They start turning the little rotor and then naturally they pick the phone up. They're lost. And we think that's funny and that's cute. And to some degree it actually is. But what we had is especially our generation was probably the last generation that really was allowed to fend for themselves in a lot of different ways. We could come home from school and there not be anyone there. And it wouldn't be a problem. We could be at home half the day all day long with no parents, but we're told what to do. Mom and father would, they would leave a message. They would leave a note on the refrigerator and tell us do this, do that. And we were afraid of the repercussions if we did not do so. Now, obviously for obvious reasons because the way the world is, you don't wanna really leave kids at home by themselves. But I'm just saying that was the situation there. And what did it do? It taught us some things. But even more to this point about being bullied, if a bully bullied you, what did you do? You had to deal with that bully. One way or the other, you were gonna have to deal with the bully. If that means the outcome, not the way you wanted to or he stopped, doesn't matter. But you had to learn how to deal with the bully. Nowadays though, parents don't accept that. Personally, this is just me. Now, obviously sometimes the bullying gets to the point where you gotta go and do something. Even back in the day, let's be honest, if the bullying got to the point, parents would still show up if it got out of hand. If this kid doesn't stop what he's doing, if he's making my life, my child's life, a living hell, well then someone's gonna pay for it and make that kid. The point is though, kids were encouraged to deal with it themselves. Nowadays, not just with bullying, but with a lot of other aspects in their lives, they are not encouraged to deal with themselves. Now, I've read this passage before, I wanna pull it up and I wanna make this because I think it's good sometimes when a passage in the Bible can come to life and you can actually see how it's put to use. Here we've talked about this passage before, Proverbs 22.6, train a child in the way that he should go and even when he's old, he will not depart from it. And I've told you before that this passage in the English does not do justice to what it actually means. Because this passage, if you read it in English, you may come away with the perception or the belief that it's telling us to train a child how he ought to go. And when he's old, he won't depart from it, but we know better, we know even God as the greatest parent ever, as he's trained Israel, they went wayward as they got older too. It's not stating how you ought to train him, it's a warning that if you train this child according to the bent of his weight, if you look on the right hand side, the Hebrew is Alpe Derka, which is upon the mouth of his weight. Now our English versions don't say that it's not written that way. Train a child upon the mouth of his weight. Well, what does that mean upon the mouth of his weight? It's an idiom that says according to his bent, according to his nature. Now the English does kind of bear that a little bit where it says train him in the way that he should go, his bent. Well, if his bent is to be sloppy, if his bent is to be lazy, then when he's old, he'll be just like he is as a five-year-old, as a 10-year-old, as a 15-year-old. However you train him, if his weight is to be this way and you don't correct it and it's a bad way, well, then when he's older, he is going to be just like that. So what's the lesson here? Well, if this child is afraid, and everybody gets afraid, every child at some point in time is afraid, unsure of themselves, not secure, wondering about themselves. They don't have enough confidence because they're kids. It takes a while. Sometimes, though, getting out there, being uncomfortable, dealing with some things, they learn it, they grow in it. And so if this child is unsure of himself and you train him, or you allow him to grow up that way, unsure of himself, well, then what's gonna happen when he's 20? Unsure of himself. If this kid can't handle rejection, that's his bent at age five, at age 15, well, then at age 25, at age 35, he can't handle rejection. The first time that a girl that he likes tells him no, well, then what does he wanna do? He wants to hurt someone. He wants to lash out. The first time that someone offends you, then what do you wanna do? You might wanna go shoot up the place, blow the place up, because you have not dealt with rejection. You have not learned how to cope. And so that's the warning. It's not a charge, a command. This is not a command. This is a warning. If you train this child, according to the bent of his way, then when he's old, and y'all know this would be the case, if you find somebody who's 80 years old and he's sloppy, he didn't get sloppy at age 79, he was sloppy at age 60, at age 50, at age 40, at age 20, and all the way back to he was age 10 and five. This is how this works. So if you find children that don't know how to cope, couple of things, one, at some point in time, we do indeed have to look at the parents. The parents are going to have to take the responsibility. And I know it's easier today. As a matter of fact, my wife and I were talking about this. All of our children are grown except for one. She's 17. And we look at some time and think, you know what? How much time do they spend on their electronic devices? We have this problem with the grandkids. How much time do they spend cooped up in their room by themselves? Especially when they're 17. We have to get on her, open the door, do this and do that. Because if they learn how to isolate themselves when they're forced to be around other people and they don't know how to cope, well, then how are they going to behave? In an uncomfortable fashion. Guys, I can't tell you how important this is, what I'm saying to you. Because getting this in and utilizing this in your family, with your kids, your grandchildren and others, this can literally be the difference between life and death. I'm going to show you in just a little bit what stops all of this. There is something that stops all of this. Now, I think personally, that I'm not even at my children. We don't raise our children that when they get to 18, they have to get out of the house. You know why? Because the same 18-year-old, before he graduated, before she graduated, wouldn't clean their room up, wouldn't responsible, but now all of a sudden in a few weeks, we're going to send them off to college or someplace else to get a room by themselves or a room with another friend, a total stranger who also doesn't know how to handle responsibility and then go out there and make the most of life with all of this freedom. That didn't work like that. That's why you see so many kids in college having all of these as well in college, having emotional problems, these different physical issues. That's why you see a lot of bad things happen on college campuses. And so with us, stay as long as you want to. I think the biblical way to go about doing that is making sure that the kids, especially the girls, you stay as long as you need to to get yourself ready. I'm not in a hurry to put my kids out, especially knowing that the likelihood of them doing well on their own is going to be small, especially considering that growing up in this society of late, they don't spend the kind of time by themselves learning to be responsible like we did. You came home from school, what did you have to do? Take care of your homework, do your chores. And if for some reason, your parents weren't at home, you knew how to cook. If you were hungry and you didn't cook, you stayed hungry. And that was a valuable lesson. You learn how to cook, you learn how to clean, you learn how to do certain things. You weren't given money every time you asked for something. You've given us some money. You're told to save the money. If you spend it all, well, then tough. As a matter of fact, parents would get on you to make sure that you understand that there are consequences for this bad behavior. We don't do that with children nowadays. We don't do that with children. And so I wonder, does this particular passage also relate to children and parenting? And I know it's gonna be tough to swallow, but I want you to think about this. Jesus says, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Here's my question. If a child being taught not to cope, does that cause that child to stumble? You better believe it does. So would God have an issue with that? He sure would. There are a lot of parents who are negligent parents. They are there, they are present, but negligent. And so there's two factors. There's two factors that determine the likelihood of suicide. The first factor that we already know of, one of them is the father at home. Now, that's not a shock or surprise. You already know that if the father's at home, that helps to determine and to alleviate the possibility of a child committing suicide. But there's gonna be one other factor that's just as important. I'm gonna cover that in just a little bit. But we have not taught our kids to walk and stand on their own two feet. We have not told them how to cope. We have not taught them how to deal with the bully. The way you deal with the bully is you deal with the bully. The way you deal with rejection is you deal with rejection. The way you deal with things is you actually deal with it. To turn around and let someone else handle it for you, that never works. That never works, nor will it ever works. Parents are to train their children. Why? Because the devil has no regard for a child's age. The devil could care less if the child or the person that he kills or that he destroys or that he goes after that he attacks. The devil could care less if it's a one-year-old. The devil could care less if it's 11, 25, 85, 101 in a nursing home or a fetus in the womb. The devil could care less. He has come to be a menace to society, to borrow a phrase. That's his job. And to think that because a child has big eyes and a big head and a bow on their head and the cute smile that he's gonna turn and walk away, no, no. Why? Here's what the Bible says. And we think about this in regards to us, but guys, this certainly applies to them. Look what it says. Peter says, be of sober spirit. Now think about this guys, be of sober spirit. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, lion seeking whom he may devour. Question, how does a lion prowl and hunt? Even if it's a male, but certainly the female lions, they don't go after the strong, they go after the weak. Gazelles and zebras and so forth, they protect the babies. They keep the babies insulated from the threat because why? Because that's what the lion would prefer to get. They go after the weak. Now, if there's no weak around, they will eventually make their way to the strong and don't think that the strong are not a target for the devil, but that's what he's gonna do. And so what we have done is we've made the weak just as weak. Cause Corey, you make the statement, you make the statement that children of a certain age, and I mean seven, eight, nine, 10 and up, they are the most vulnerable. How could they be more vulnerable than the two-year-old, than the three-year-old, than the four-year-old? I'll tell you how. Because the two-year-old, the three-year-old, the four-year-old, they recognize that they're weak. They recognize they're weak and so they're always mommy, daddy. They know where to go to. They know who to lean on. They know where protection is. But any of you all have young children that are seven, eight, nine, 10. Lord, help us if you've got a 12-year-old, a 13-year-old, a teenager, be it a boy or a girl. When was the last time you're a teenager? When was the last time your teenager listened to something that you told them and they said, that's great advice, mom. That's great advice, dad. Rarely happens, right? As a matter of fact, your teenager, if you let them tell you they know far more than you do, that's just what it is to be a teenager. And being a parent, you accept that. Now you deal with that, you counter that and you'd say, whatever, sit down somewhere. You don't take advice from them. You make them listen to you. But they know better. They've read a few things in school. They've heard some stuff. They've got the internet and they will tell you that you are wrong, mom and daddy, because they know one or two more facts, especially about something electronic, they think that you don't know anything. And so what makes them more vulnerable, what makes them more vulnerable is the same thing that makes an animal in the wild more vulnerable to a lion attack or to a tiger's attack or any other animal's attack. They don't know they're vulnerable. If you're vulnerable, if you're weak and you don't think you're weak, such as these children, they'll go out there and they'll do things. They'll act in certain ways. They'll behave in certain ways. They'll put themselves in positions and they have no idea what's happening. And so because like myself, daddy, I'm saying your shirt is too small. Your shirt is too short. Those pants, too tight. You're showing too much of this. They have no idea why I'm saying that. You're just too old. My daughter calls me old man. You're just too old. You have no idea. Because she or they haven't learned how to cope in those environments. So what do we have to do? We have to train them. But I want them to learn how to cope in certain instances as they're growing up. The problem is in this country, in the world we do not teach them how to cope. And so we have to one train them to not be the way they are. Their natural bent is a sinful bent. Their natural bent is a dangerous bent. Their natural bent is a weak bent. I wanna tell you all a quick story. A story about a rich young man. A rich young man who was babied and pampered. Everything that he wanted in life, he got. And so he takes a trip. He comes back from the trip. But because he's rich, he's got a driver. His driver, his family driver is not able to come. This is at nighttime. The man's flight comes in at nighttime. This is about 10, 11 o'clock at night. And his driver cannot show up. So what does the driver do? The driver sends someone else to come pick him up. The replacement driver is there on time waiting, no problem. But when he gets the young man's luggage inside and the young man is inside the car, he asks them, where are we going? The young man says, I don't know. Don't you know you're the driver? The driver explains, this is my first time driving you. I have no idea where you live, where you're going. And so the young man calls the other driver and says, why are you not here? He's upset because he's also spoiled. Why are you not here? Why did you leave me with this driver who has no idea what he's doing, where he's going? He said, I want you to come pick me up. I want you to drive me. The man says, I can't. I have a problem with my family. I cannot. He says, no, I need you to come and pick me up. This driver that I have is not adequate. To his former driver says, listen, I've explained to you. I cannot. I would love to come, but I cannot. I'm not eating. I'm with my family. We have a family emergency. I cannot do it. He says, but the boy says, I need you to come. The driver says, why do you need me to come? Don't you, can't you just ask this man? Just simply give this man the directions and he will drive you there. And the boy replies, I cannot give him the directions. The driver says, why not? The young boy says, because I don't know the way. We've got kids who simply don't know the way. And when you put them in a place to where they have to know the way, don't be surprised because they don't know the way. You haven't taught them the way. They haven't been shown the way. They haven't been forced to figure out the way. There's the problem. Now, what stops all of this? I mentioned having a father at home. That doesn't. That fathers tend to be more aggressive. Now, obviously with girls, they can be a little bit nicer. And I have this problem too. I have this problem too. My girls can take advantage of me. But at the same time, at some point in time, you know what? I'm not dealing with you, fine, whatever. I'm not taking your excuses. At some point in time, daddy mode kicks in and no, no, no. And my wife will say, hey, I think you're being a little too harsh and this and that, that happens. And so there's a reason why having a father at home does help. But there's something else that also trumps this. Think about that. What could possibly, what could possibly trump this? Well, there was a study by these doctors, these psychiatrists who did a study on children who were committing suicide. Now, obviously the rate of suicide has increased since then, but the rates, the rates of percentages are still virtually the same. So even though it's a smaller number of suicides, this study was a 2017, even though it's a smaller number of suicides, then suicides have increased, the percentages, the rates are the same. And what am I talking about? Well, the one thing that is just as good as a matter of fact, even more effective for or preventing teen suicide or youth suicide is church attendance. And when I say church attendance, I mean regular church attendance. Matter of fact, this study was even published in the Journal of American Medicine Association. And so in this case, I want you all to notice what's on the screen. Of all these suicides, the one in black, these are the ones, the high persons are those who have never attended church. And then the one right beside it are those that attend church on average less than once a week. So maybe once a month, maybe twice a month, maybe once or twice a year, who knows? Then you got those that attend once a week. And then those that attend more than once a week, meaning they're constantly going. Notice the suicide level amongst them. The suicide level amongst them is virtually, it's not Neil, you can always have that case. Why is that important? Because regular church attendance usually bears the fact that this is a child that believes in or at least professes to believe in God and is trying to live that way. Does that mean that every child that goes to church all the time is a Christian? No, that's not what that means. However, something is likely being instilled. They are around other kids that are going through other things. There are in many cases being taught to deal with things. There's problem solving and so forth going on. Because what's gonna happen is there needs necessarily to be something in them that we can't, there's no such study to determine if a person actually is a true Christian. There's none. But the best indicator of if a person is actually a Christian is church attendance, regular church attendance. Matter of fact, when you start looking at regular church attendance, and I don't care if it's a Pentecostal church, a Charismatic church, if it's a Baptist church, if it's a conservative church, regular church attendance across the board, it's the same. You know what, even if it's a church where, who knows if it's a bad doctor, regular church attendance matters. It's the biggest indicator of whether someone is an actual believer. It's the greatest indicator as to whether someone is going to leave the church when they get out of high school. Kids that leave the church by and large were not regular attenders growing up. They went every now and then they weren't forced to. By the way, kids that attend church regularly or adults that attend the church regularly have the lowest amount of suicides, the lowest divorce rate, the lowest incarceration rate, the lowest drug use. Regular attending church regularly is a factor that should not be minimized. And so what has happened over the last 20, 30, 40, 50 years? What has church attendance done, especially with children, it's gone down. So as it's gone down, what has risen? Everything negative that you can think of. The suicide rate, depression rate, pregnancy, drug use, the likelihood of them becoming homosexual. All of those things, it's not a coincidence. When you remove God from the life of this child, just like in school, what tends to happen in the life of that child? No God, no good. That's why he makes a statement. He says that better is he that's in you. Matter of fact, let's go to first down four. He says you are from God, little children and have overcome them because greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. This is why it's so important for a person to recognize the or be secure about Christ in them. People say, well, what difference does it make if you believe that you are secure in Christ forever? That that's the reason why, because a child or a person, anybody that believes that they are secure in Christ and that's what they go to, that's what they run to, that's what they hold on to, rather than thinking that you have to hold on to God, God is actually the one holding you, your confidence level is up higher. Because yet you may fall, though you might fall, you still recognize there's somebody there to pick you up. He's going to be there for you. That's the reason why you're confident. That's why the right of Hebrews says, do not throw away your confidence because you will have need of it as the day goes on. The more the times get rough, and let's be honest, tell the truth, shame the devil, even for adults it gets rough. It gets hard out there. Again, Paul himself said that we despair even of life itself. So if the disciples, if the apostles can have problems with their mental faculties, listen, it's rough out here. To the point, you know what? Maybe it's better to go ahead and die. Paul is the one that says that for me to live as Christ, to die, excuse me, to die as game, what was Paul saying? You know what? Going to heaven is much better than being here. However, I'll stay here because God needs me. So for me to live, that's for Christ. Now to die, that's game for me, but I'll stay here. Why? Because what's on the other side is much better. And so when kids start thinking, hey, what's on the other side is much better, there's a reason why. They found no joy in what's on this side. If they knew, if they knew this passage here, first time 518, we know that no one who was born of God sins. What's the key indicator? What's the best indicator of someone who is born of God? We don't know for a fact, but this bears us out, church attendance. No one who's born of God sins, but he who was born of God, has been born of God, God keeps him and the evil one does not touch him. He keeps him. So if this child is going through something and they're struggling and they're wondering, is anybody here, because everybody does that. Every kid, even with the parents there, because sometimes the parents get on the kid's nerve. Sometimes the parents are the ones that are driving the kids crazy. Sometimes the kids are like, hey, can I go stay with grandma? Can I go stay with grandpa? Can I go stay with my aunt and uncle? Because I'm sick of you old folks, you guys don't get me. But because they have one, they'll have this confidence. Hopefully they have a confidence to know that, yeah, even though I'm getting on their nerves, they still love me and they run to me. The same with Jesus. The same with Jesus. If a child recognizes that they do have the Lord, they can handle that. As a former youth pastor, I've seen it over and over again. Kids that get bullied, kids that get picked on, kids that deal with, remember, father being there, sometimes that's not a possibility. What you can fix, if it's not a possibility, if you cannot, because you can't go back and make the father come back home if you're a single parent. But what you can do is put him in the place of his heavenly father. Put him in weekly attendance and there's other men there that also matters. And so this child is there going to church often, being around other kids, having to deal with different things and being made, being held accountable. That absolutely matters. And what it does is it also helps to alleviate this, the onset or keeps fins off the onset of homosexuality. Because what group has the highest incident of depression and suicide, the LGBTQ community, even amongst children. Because you're trying to be something that you're not. Trying to be something that you're not and so what ends up happening is you realize, I'm not who I think I am and I feel like, it's already tough as a kid already because you feel uncomfortable. And so even more so, you feel uncomfortable because your sexuality isn't being validated. Excuse me. And so if a kid has learned to rely on God, because what we're not saying, you teach a child to be self-sufficient, that's not what we're saying. We're not saying child be self-sufficient, we're saying child rely on God. And so that's why this particular, this graph bears true, bears weight. It bears weight because the more you are there with God, because typically, typically if you are there, you have begun to see the value in being in Christ. You've begun to see the value in being in His Word. Kids that go to church often read their Bibles more. That shouldn't be a surprise. Who reads their Bibles more? The kid that doesn't go to church or the kid that's at church every week? Matter of fact, twice a week. Well, the kid that's at church the most, he's gonna read his Bible. He's probably gonna have some church homework, so to speak. He's gonna have some assignments. They're gonna challenge him to read some scriptures, to memorize some scriptures, some scriptures that will be germane to their walk as a teenager, as a preteen, as a young adult, as an adult. Asking, I'll ask you guys this question. As an adult, you all tell me in the chats. As an adult, does going to church, does that help you? Does reading your Bible help you? Now, I would say yay, what would you say? If it doesn't, well then we've got a problem. Not so much with the world, but there's gonna be an issue with you. But the closest we talked about before, proximity is what matters. Proximity with God matters. And so they can find, let me just read some passages that they could just go to church and have these read to them and have these learned to them. Deuteronomy 3, 18, the Lord himself goes before you and will be with you. 3, 18 of Deuteronomy, I'm not gonna put on the screen for the sake of time. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged. Philippians 4, 8, finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable. If anything, excellent or praiseworthy, think on such things. Shouldn't a child know that? How about if a child understood that whatever he's going through, he can do all things through Christ who's strengthening. That little boy who said that his life is messed up in this and that or whatever. What if that kid was told? What if that kid was told that you can make it? And he knew that. John 1633, Jesus is making this statement. He says that I have told you these things so that you may have peace. In the world, you will have trouble. The kid is understanding you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world and made you out to be an overcomer. How about this passage? What if kids understood this? Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden. You got some precious and problems on you little kid? Well, Christ will give you rest. That's the difference between the kid that knows Christ and the kid that doesn't. Now am I saying that all these kids that have these problems that know Christ, that'll be a discussion for another time, but guys, this is vitally important. When I say important, I mean vitally important. It's the only reason why, again, I rarely ask for someone to like a video. Do I think this video is the most riveting video, the most entertaining? I have no idea, but I know it's one of the most important, if not the most important. And so again, if you have not liked this video, please, because I want more people to get this. If you get one thing, get yourself and your children regularly attending church, get them involved in the work and make them to stand on their own two feet. Let them fall. Let them fall. Again, going back to when we were younger, we talk about this a lot when we were younger, we used, how many times as kids did we fall and break something? You break a two. Listen, there are a lot of 50 year old, 60, 70, 80 year old men and girls running around here with chipped teeth. Why? Because they fell off something. With scars, broken bones, broken legs and so forth, because they fell out of a tree. We had a rock fights. We learned to deal with the pain and get back out there and deal with some more. Play tackle football on concrete, that kind of stuff. We don't do that anymore because sometimes we might just coddle these kids a little too much. And because we coddle them, they can't cope. If they can't cope, they tend to not make it. And we send them out there as sheep among wolves, not in the sense that God is speaking of, but I'm talking about vulnerable sheep because they nibble themselves out and they're in a pasture where the shepherd is not there and they're left to fend for themselves and what's gonna happen? They don't make it. So guys, I hope this was helpful, hope it was beneficial. I think that this is very biblical. I think that we need to make sure that we teach our kids one just, hey, listen, life ain't easy. It's gonna be tough. If you can't, I told my kids, my grandkids this, if you can't handle me yelling at you, what are you gonna do when the world yells at you? I'm the only person, or at least the only man, not the only person, but the only man in your life that loves you like I do. I'm in here on earth. Don't lie to me. You can tell me how bad and how foul you are. I'm still gonna love you. I used to wipe you behind, so I'm not bothered by anything bad about you. Don't look, listen, if you're gonna tell a lot, a lot of them don't lie to me. If you're gonna be dishonest, don't be dishonest with me. I'm the one that's gonna be always there. Someone mess with you at three o'clock in the morning, I'm there and listen, I will have no problem going to jail for some other stuff. I will go to jail for you. What would God, they need to know, what would God do for you? Well, he would go to the cross for you. And so who should you lean on? That's who you should lean on. And so I make my children, now I'm not gonna lie, not gonna lie. There are moments where I have spoiled my baby girls. There are moments, but at the same time, listen, you got to grow up. My kids get mad at me when I tell them, I don't care how you feel. I care how you feel, but I don't care how you feel. Okay, so I don't care how you feel. I care, but I don't care. I care, but not that much, why? Cause how you feel now won't be the same in five minutes, in 10 minutes, but what I'm telling you is more important. Get in there and do the dishes. Get in there and do your homework. Turn that device off, go do that. You upset, I don't care, cry later. You have got to be ready to deal with this world and we are raising kids that just don't want to. We have taken one of the most important things, one of the most important aspects of child development, we've taken it out of their life. It's like not giving kids vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin C, no protein. You feed the kid bread all day long, all week long, all month long, that's all he ate bread. One's gonna be a fat kid. Two, he's gonna die at age four. It's because a child is malnutrition, you have not developed this child. The child knows nothing about anything. And so when you take a child's ability and his right, his God-given right to learn and to grow, learning means he has to see a problem and to get past the problem. That's literally what it means, that's literally what learning entails. See a problem, fix a problem. No, we got parents who wanna fix a problem for them. And then tell them when they get a D on their report card, you did good. Tell them when they paint something. Listen, okay, fine. You painted a stick figure when you were four. That was cute. At age 12, that's hideous, do better. Sugar, cold and junk is the same thing. Don't do that. We expect them to grow up and be productive citizens. Train them now. Amen. Amen.