In a society where adults often take priority, it is becoming more and more challenging to find kid-friendly anything. From TV shows to school curriculums, we have become less sensitive to children's minds and the wisdom they could be showing us, rather than vice versa. You see, while children can be precocious, sage-like beings at times, we are more often aware that they are also sponges -- they soak up whatever influences are around them. We can inspire them, brainwash them, cherish them or manipulate them. We can, so often as society does, force them to grow up as fast as humanly possibly, mature into adults so we can use them for our own purposes, regardless if they are good or bad purposes. I suppose part of it is a race, a serious, but ironically childish, competition in order to keep up with foreign countries, and we may stand to gain smarter, more accomplished children from some of that -- but at what cost? Their innocence? Their one and only childhood, stripped from their timeline?

A few times I've watched children's modern day shows, sometimes out of boredom or curiosity.

They are often shows that people only in their late teens through adulthood should be watching, often with indirect sexual references and even some cussing.

It often makes me cringe to see my little cousins, who are only 10 and 13, wear makeup reminiscent of someone in their late teens through early 20's -- mascara, eye-shadow, blush, lipstick... the whole nine yards. It makes me sick. They are already being brainwashed into giving up their childhoods, thinking they need makeup or boyfriends to be thought of as pretty and loved. The 13-year-old has already been through multiple boyfriends and the 10-year-old is currently on her first. They need to know, need to be told with absolute sincerity, that they don't need all that at their ages. They should be focusing on just being a kid, taking time to be, having fun with friends -- not their next (and possibly forbidden) date with Romeo.

This forcing-into-adulthood programming has already taken roots into the minds of even younger generations. A distant cousin of mine once told me that, to her disbelief, her little kindergartner was expected to already know how to write in full, long sentences by the time kindergarten started (I remember quite clearly, when I was in kindergarten, they were just teaching us the alphabet and how to read!). And, if upping the academic ante wasn't enough, many extremists have even gone as far as deliberately brainwashing young children with their politically correct propaganda about things such as "healthy" premarital sex, homosexuality and transgenderism, raising much alarm even amongst parents themselves. They push very adult topics on children in the hopes that the next few generations will aid them in carrying out their bidding -- a selfish manipulation, instead of letting them freely choose what to believe. Society ignores what children have to say, society ignores their rights, and worse still, society ignores their innocence and their childhoods, in the name of selfishly furthering their agendas. Jesus, Himself, said, "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matt. 18:6, NKJV.) Ouch. It's bad enough that society forces children out of childhood at an alarming rate; what's more alarming still is that sin is often involved, in one way or another.

As Christians and responsible citizens, it is our duty to shepherd children out of harm's way, away from those who deliberately mislead and deceive them with Satan's lies. This is not the same as their brainwashing children; rather, we should give them freedom to choose, as we have, and as God lets us choose: either the world and its lies, or Him. There is no gray area when it comes to that. God is always saddened when someone doesn't choose Him, but always leaves the Door wide open, should they ever change their mind. He wants them to love others and to more importantly love Him, as He loves them, rather than only looking out for No. 1, as the secular world so often teaches.

We should always be looking to imitate our Lord and Savior, Jesus, in all we do, including providing good role models for children to follow, positive information they can absorb and understand properly and always, always pointing them towards Him instead of forcibly yanking them away from Him.

Jesus often pointed out that we are even called "CHILDREN of God." Note: not "ADULTS of God," or even "God's CITIZENS," but "CHILDREN of God." Jesus knew that by pushing adulthood onto ourselves, onto other young children, we could never even hope to understand His Kingdom, or even how faith works. He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 18:3-4, NKJV.) But, here's the main question -- how can we learn to be like the little children when those very little children are constantly under pressure to grow up quickly, squander their already short-lived childhoods, and prematurely act like, well, adults? We'll never know until we stop pressuring them and let them be who they are -- children who are loved by God. Children who shouldn't be manipulated for selfish purposes. Kids who are just kids.