I found this obscure youtube video from 2019 that I found fascinating. I think protecting children from pornography is a noble goal, and figured they would have some practical advice. Boy was I wrong.
When I think of our children today and what I would hope for them, I feel that as parents we have the greatest challenge on earth and that is to protect and strengthen our families. That that is a God-given directive. [Music] To teach children effectively about pornography you have to call it what it is. You have to help them to see that it is a counterfeit to Heavenly Father's beautiful plan. You have to teach children that Satan's plan is to make them miserable and to keep them captive. Heavenly Father's plan is to help them to use their agency so that they are happy. So they become like him.
I hope and pray that parents can realize that as they seek revelation from Heavenly Father in guiding and directing the affairs of their home their families that they will feel the power that is available to them. And that that power will be felt by their children. I feel that their children will understand that they are seeking to all walk in light together and that they strengthen each other.
I think the best thing you can do to safeguard your family is to do everything you can to create a spirit-filled home. We should help our kids recognize what it feels like. What it is. Pray for it and thank Heavenly Father for it when it's there, so that your kids can hear you. The goal is to have the spirit be so strong in your home and so strong in their little hearts that when the spirit is gone they feel it and they want it back so much that it's like gasping for air.
Parents have a hard job but it's also a sacred job. To teach their children about covenants and commandments. And I think we make a mistake if we talk about them as rules. These are rules that you must keep and because they're more than rules they're really how things work. It's a way of looking way down the road and saying "I can see how this will affect you later on so we're let's talk about what will help protect us." And so Commandments are the guidelines that the Lord gives us to say "I can see everything and this is what's gonna make you happy" and the covenants are when we then respond and say "Lord I trust you I can't see what you see but I you and so I will bind myself to keep a covenant with you."
As parents teach their children about covenants and Commandments I think the first thing they need to do is help them to learn how to keep promises. That's as a very young child they learn that they do what they say and parents need to be an example of that in the first place. When they model that they will do what they say. Then a child learns that it's important. Once a child understands that keeping the promises is important and it brings them good feelings it brings them blessings. They're more likely to keep their covenants. Heavenly Father always keeps his promises. When the child understands that then they are more likely to keep their promises and in turn keep their covenants. When we discuss pornography I feel that we feel negative and we feel afraid and we pull back.
When understanding the plan of salvation, understanding who we are, helping children to understand who they are, as we help them to understand they are divine beings. Understand and appreciate their divine identity. Who they really are as sons and daughters of God. That is so empowering to our children.
[Rusty Nelson begins speaking:] Hear the children of the prophets ye of the house of Israel. Ye are of the Covenant (what covenant?) the Covenant that father made with your father. Saying unto Abraham "in thy seed shall all the Kindred's of the earth be blessed." And then he gave his lesson. The father sent me to bless you in turning away every one of you from your iniquities (and why?) because ye are children of the Covenant. So he immunized those people by giving them the doctrine. My plea is that we as parents and teachers inoculate our young people, our family members, with a doctrine of deity. And then they will have we will have a sin resistant generation. They must have the doctrine.
I just have one question for anyone reading this. Did you see any specific information on how to protect your children from pornography? How effective do you think latter-day saint parents will be in this endeavor by turning it into a giant exercise about maintaining the spirit in your home?
There's so much to unpack in this short video, it's incredible. It's like something you would expect from Jehovas Witnesses. The words just flow past you unless you see it actually written out. They even manage to work in "understand and appreciate their divine identity" as a poke at LGBTQ.