Youth Culture Today with Walt Mueller

All this week we’ve been looking at some strategies for reducing the stress you may be feeling as a parent. This comes in response to the recent Surgeon General’s advisory on Parents Under Pressure, and the fact that forty-one percent of parents say that they are so stressed they cannot function. My suggestion for you today is this: develop habits and rhythms of running to God and His Word. Do you...

All this week we’re looking at some strategies for reducing the stress you may be feeling as a parent. This comes in response to the recent Surgeon General’s advisory on Parents Under Pressure, and the fact that forty-one percent of parents say that they are so stressed they cannot function. My suggestion for you today is this: make sure that you and your family take a regular weekly Sabbath. Take...

All this week we’re looking at some strategies for reducing the stress you may be feeling as a parent. This comes in response to the recent Surgeon General’s advisory on Parents Under Pressure, and the fact that forty-one percent of parents say that they are so stressed they cannot function. My suggestion for you today is this: stop facilitating a family lifestyle where you are running around, as...

All this week we’re looking at some strategies for reducing the stress you may be feeling as a parent. This comes in response to the recent Surgeon General’s advisory on Parents Under Pressure, and the fact that forty-one percent of parents say that they are so stressed they cannot function. My suggestion for you today is this: pull back on the amount of time that you and your children spend each...

A United States Surgeon General’s advisory “is a public statement that calls the American people’s attention to an urgent public health issue and provides recommendations for how it should be addressed. Advisories are reserved for significant public health challenges that require the nation’s immediate awareness and action.” In the past, you’ve heard us cite advisories related to issues facing our...

One of the most quoted figures in the world of the occult is Alistair Crowley, an early twentieth century writer and self-proclaimed prophet whose anti-Christian influence continues to this day. Perhaps Crowley’s most popular phrase is this: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” Crowley taught and lived out a lifestyle marked by living under the sovereignty of one’s self, rather than...

The American Lung Association is reporting that while smoking conventional cigarettes and electronic cigarettes is on the decline among our children and teens, the use of non-combustible tobacco products known as “smokeless and spitless nicotine pouches” is growing in popularity. Thanks to marketing efforts and the viral nature of social media promotion, there has been a 641% increase in sales of...

I recently read a sentence in the First Things monthly journal that stopped me in my tracks. I went back and read it several times over. Eventually, I pulled out a pen and underlined it, knowing that it was worth going back to over and over again. I spotted the sentence in an article that regular columnist, Liel Liebovitz, had written about what it’s like to be a young person in today’s world. Lie...

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are aware that debates have been raging regarding children and teens who say they are struggling with gender dysphoria. Thanks to social media and peer influence, more and more kids are announcing that their gender identity is something other than their biological sex. We can’t forget that all kids go through the process of identity formation, and with t...

My friend Luke Bobo recently wrote an article in which he encourages all of us to establish what’s known as “a rule of life.” Luke tells us that establishing a rule of life helps us to develop intentional habits that lead us to living a life of purpose and virtue. Luke gives us six recommendations that we can enlist and teach our kids regarding what it means to live by a rule of life. First, think...

One of the best guides for how to pray for our kids is the parable of the sower, which can be found in Mark four. As Jesus is teaching about the power of Gospel to transform lives, he uses this well-known agricultural parable to explain the different responses people have to the Gospel, based on the condition of their heart. You see, just as good soil is needed for a seed to take root and grow, so...

I grew up as part of a generation that didn’t get excited about back to school shopping. All we wanted to do was make the most of each day of summer vacation, and a day or two dedicated to back to school shopping was an unwelcome and protest-sparking interruption. In today’s world, the great majority of kids love to back to school shop, as their clothing, water bottles, notebooks, and pens can be...

Do you remember cute little seven year old actress Drew Barrymore and her role in the 1982 blockbuster movie, ET. The Extra Terrestrial? Now a forty-two year old mother of two girls, Olive, age twelve, and Frankie, age ten, Barrymore is working like all of us to figure out how to navigate the world of smartphones and social media with her kids. After weighing the pros and cons, she decided to take...

The recently released U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory on the mental health and well-being of parents tells us that forty one percent of parents say that most days they are so stressed that they cannot function. Did you hear that? That’s four out of ten parents! At the end of the report, there is an action section which lists what parents and caregivers can do to reverse this trend. Three of the su...

Back in the school days of today’s parents and grandparents, one’s thirst was quenched by a visit to one of a school’s many wall-mounted water fountains, and you sometimes had to wait in line! While bottled water has been around in some form since the sixteen-hundreds, it wasn’t until 1994 that Pepsi began test-marketing it’s filtered water brand, Aquafina. Now, single use plastic bottles are ever...

In his classic old book, “With Christ in the School of Prayer”, Andrew Murray offers us some sage advice that should spark our own regular self-reflection. It’s also advice we can pass on to our kids as we teach them to engage in self-reflection, both now and for the rest of their lives. Murray writes this: “The tone of my life during the day is God’s criterion of what I really am and desire.” Wha...

Today I want to speak to the mothers who are listening. If you know anything at all about today’s youth culture, you are aware that your daughters are facing tremendous body image pressure. As a result, all kinds of disordered eating have reached epidemic proportions among children and teens. If you’ve watched television, been on social media, or seen magazine covers you have a pretty good idea wh...

Several years ago I began to notice ringing in my ears. Known as Tinnitus, I would describe my experience as souding like someone is blowing a never-ending high-pitched whistle in my ears. My issues come, I think, from listening to loud music earlier in my life. My concern for today’s children and teens has been fueled by a recent article in the BMJ Public Health Journal. A review of available evi...

How much money would you need to be happy? That’s the question The Harris Poll asked over two-thousand Americans over the age of eighteen from multiple generations, and the results are surprising, or maybe not. The survey found that almost six out of ten respondents think that happiness can be bought, and that the average person believes that they would have to have one-point-two million dollars i...

As he closes out his second letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul writes this: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” Paul’s desire for the Corinthians is the desire we should have for ourselves, that we are constantly working to be sure that we are staying on course as we progress in our growth in the Christian faith. I recently read this great suggestio...

Not a day goes by when I don’t hear or see one advertisement for an online sports gambling platform. With the Major League Baseball season gearing up your local broadcasts will mention not only what’s happening on the field, but the odds on a host of things occurring in the game along with an invitation to put money on anything and everything. Add to this the promotions and bonuses for signing up,...

Besides warning our kids about the spiritual and legal issues related to underage drinking, we must also warn them about the damage that underage drinking does to their still not-fully-formed brains. In today’s world, more and more kids are engaging in binge drinking. That is, consuming five or more drinks in a period of two hours. Researchers have now found conclusive evidence that drinking durin...

Kristen Jenson at defendyoungminds.com wrote an article entitled, Today’s Porn Industry: Five Things Every Parent Needs to Know. Parents, as you engage in continued conversations with your kids about the dangers and sinful nature of this horribly broken and addicting expression of God’s good gift of sexuality, keep in mind these warnings from Jenson. First, the porn industry is complicit with the...

One of my favorite memories of childhood was reaching the age where from time to time, my parents would allow me to sleep over at a friends house. I remember the joy of staying up late, watching movies, and eating pizza with a group of buddies. My kids experienced sleepovers as well. In today’s world, there’s a movement away from sleepovers that I think is warranted. We live in a world where we’re...

The first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism is this: “What is the chief end of man?” I have found that the answer informs all that we are and everything we do in our lives. The answer is this: “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Everything we do in life is an act of worship, and everything we do in life should be done to glorify God. This includes how we drive. This should cause us...