I am reminded of a situation from my teenage years. My best friend in high school was a convert to the church of Jesus Christ, and no one in her family followed her to baptism. We enjoyed a lot of the same things and found ourselves at either my house or hers. Unfortunately, my best friend's mom was a chain smoker. At first when I would visit her house, the smoke would really bother me, even with her mother being careful not to smoke too close to us. Over time, I found that even though I didn't like the smoke, it didn't bother me quite as much. My sensitivity had decreased to the effects of the smoke. Luckily I had a wise and caring earthly father who would encourage and support my best friend coming over to our home (25 minutes away), so that we could both be free of the smoke.
My earthly father did not have to do anything extreme to save me from the effects of second hand smoke, but he did do something! He did his best to remove me from a situation that was desensitizing me from smoking. If only smoking was the trouble we as parents had to protect our children from! These kids are bombarded all over the place: school hallways, academic curriculum, bus rides, magazines at the checkout counter, music on the radio, movies, television, the internet, billboards, peers, emotions, and thoughts, etc. If we are not careful of this mist of darkness surrounding our families, then we will find members slowly getting lost in the thick of it!
It may seem hard to do what many would say are extreme measures to protecting our children from the way the world works today, but are we willing to risk it? Will it be easy? NO! Will it put more work on us as parents? YES! But we are Ohana:
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