We are evaluating forbidden fruit versus things to teach self-control.
In the garden, when God wanted man to learn to obey Him and choose right from wrong, He used the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by forbidding it.
God didn’t use the trees’s fruit to teach moderation/self-control. He didn’t say:
- Eat only the good fruit.
- Eat only a little fruit.
- Eat it on Sundays.
God said, don’t eat! Eating from that tree in the Garden meant death.
I want my children to completely avoid directly sinful things and I expect that is your desire for your children as well. However, in addition, I want my children to have a disdain for things that easily lead to destructive things. Are you still with me?
“And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went thither a whoring after it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house” (Judges 8:27). The ephod that Gideon made likely wasn’t directly sinful at first. However, it soon became a snare to Gideon and his family.
The less like the world your family is, the more dangerous TV and movies are in pulling their hearts to the world.
What about you? What are your goals for your children?
Steve