Question:



I'm in the 9th grade and I'm struggling with God a little bit. I went to a christian school for my whole life when I switched over to public school. I was pretty close to God during those years but I feel I was young and didn't really get it.

Well during my 6th grade yeary parents got a divorce and my dad moved into a nursing home. He has a disease called MS so I've never really had that good of a roll model in my life. After the divorce my church kind of turned on my mom, they were very critical of her for divorcing him. I think they thought it was because he had MS. That wasn't it at all, my dad was addicted to porn. So we just stopped going to church. In 7th grade I stayed pretty close to God.

In 8th grade I started to slip up a bit. I started watching porn with my friends. My mom got remarried and we started going to church again and after two years of not going it just didn't sound like fun at all. So I had a bad attitude about it and I guess and I still do now. Now I am cussing a lot and watch porn a lot more then I used to. My mom almost has to drag me to church and I'm just not that happy anymore. I feel like I have come to rock bottom and I need help. Although I know I could be alot worse off. Do you have any suggestions?



Answer:



I have learned one thing about family ties, and it’s that if the parent struggles with something, then the children are likely to struggle with it themselves. God’s Word does talk about generational sin. Not that you are cursed, but when the door is opened by a parent, the children will face a similar struggle. Porn is a very dangerous drug to believers and there are more that are caught up in it that would want to admit it. One of the dangers of porn is that it isolates you. Something like this tends to be very secretive and when it is kept hidden, it cannot be dealt with, it will grow out of control, and lead to serious consequence down the road (your father could admit that). You have to realize that this is something you cannot fight on your own. If you keep this isolated then the enemy has won. You have to bring this out into the light, first with the Lord, and next with godly believers who you can share with in this struggle. 1 John 1:9 and James 5:16 say that God brings cleansing when we confess and that when we open up about our struggles that confession with prayer does much to change us. Getting good accountability is a must, and then getting safety guards up to stop access to it is another must.



Getting that into the light will completely change how it effects your attitude toward the things of God and your family. I would also pray that God would bring about a healthy fatherly figure that would give you a good picture of what our Heavenly Father is like to us. I’m sorry about the situation with your parents and how the old church treated you. That is not a healthy picture of what God is like, and His Word tells us that even when we mess up, He will always be there and will never let us down.


Don't forget, if you have a question you can send it to me at asktheyouthpastor@xtrlive.com plus you can talk to us tonight at www.studenthopeline.com.