I know what you’re thinking. “Great, another political post about why we should or shouldn’t vaccinate for COVID-19...” If this is your assumption, you are wrong.
This post is not political and has nothing to do with my stance on medical vaccines. Rather, the idea we are discussing today is vaccination of the world.
Most of us know what vaccination is.
The CDC defines vaccination as, “A product that stimulates a person's immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease.”
In layman’s terms, vaccination means giving the body a controlled dose of a disease (or something similar) today in order to protect the person from falling victim to it tomorrow.
More than potentially saving someone’s life with a medical vaccination, we have a much larger opportunity to save our kids’ lives by vaccinating them with the world.
What does this mean?
Vaccinating with the world means exposing our kids to controlled doses of worldly desires within a controlled environment in order to prevent those same desires from harming or even killing them in the future.
Are you overprotecting or overexposing?
Through observing my generational peers, with respect to worldly desires, there are vast numbers of young adults who were raised in one of two ways.
1. Kids were raised by parents who protected them from worldly desires. Absolutely no drinking, smoking, drugs, or partying. They also typically had a very strict curfew.
2. Kids were raised by parents who had very little boundaries allowing alcohol, smoking, drugs, partying, and typically had no curfew in place.
You would think the first group of kids would have a much greater advantage of fending off worldly desires than the second, but that assumption would be incorrect.
Just as much as a kid can become addicted to these worldly desires by being in close proximity to them his or her whole life, the curiosity of desires kept from them in their parents’ home slowly eats away at the first group until they are on their own.
They link up with kids in group two, and enablement begins. Now, both groups of kids are likely to end up on the same side of the spectrum when it comes to vices and addiction.
Where is the line to be drawn?
This is where the idea of vaccination comes into play. I am so thankful to have had parents who neither made worldly desires a common presence in our house, yet never forbade me from partaking in them altogether.
For instance, if I wanted to enjoy an alcoholic drink, they’d rather it be at our house in a controlled environment with a controlled amount of drinks on hand.
I am forever grateful that this was the strategy my parents took in exposing me to the world.
Curiosity is only present in the unknown. My parents removed the unknown by providing me with what I was previously curious about and explaining to me the harm that would come from abusing it.
Addiction stems from a dependency on a substance that you know well and have abused. My parents removed dependency and abuse by trusting me to know my limits and explaining to me the dangers of these desires.
Now that I am in my mid-20s, I look back to my childhood grateful that my parents vaccinated me with the world. Not only is my curiosity for worldly desires gone, I am much more aware of the addiction and abuse plaguing my generation.
You might think you are doing your kid a favor by keeping things from him or her. You also might think you are doing your kid a favor by giving him or her as much of those things as he or she wants.
Based on my observations and the numerous stories I’ve heard from my peers regarding their now adult life, both of these strategies have done more harm than good in protecting them from the world.
Are you overprotecting or overexposing?
Millions are now held prisoner by the world, desiring nothing more than to break the chains of bondage that holds them back from freedom.
My hope and prayer is that my generation onward will not repeat the mistakes of the past by choosing to vaccinate our kids with controlled doses of the world. Only then can we be protected from the empty promises it keeps making to us.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2
abundantly,
hw
------
Like this message? Share it with others on social media!
Also, subscribe to be the first to know when a new post becomes available!