Welcome into the Dean's List, a brief analysis of news and culture from a biblical worldview. This is the broadcast in which we seek to faithfully proclaim that the gospel indeed will overcome. It's Tuesday, May 20th, 2014. I'm Paul Dean. An incredible story out of the New York Times. More than 10,000, let me repeat that, 10,000 American toddlers two or three years old are being medicated for ADHD obviously outside established pediatric guidelines according to data presented on Friday by an official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now obviously part of the problem is the fact that we live in a society that has embraced the medical model of psychology. You've got some kind of problem, you've got some kind of an issue, doesn't really matter what it is. You go to the doctor and you get a prescription. In fact, you can go to the doctor and you're not even depressed and the doctor can tell you that you're depressed and will try to put you on, well, psychotropic medication. Typically speaking, there are essentially two kinds of problems. There are physiological problems, something we can test. Heart catheterization can determine whether or not you have heart disease, for example. there are physiological problems and then there are spiritual problems and those spiritual problems of course are issues of the heart and are dealt with biblically, dealt with by the Holy Spirit, by the Word of God, by the Gospel. Now if you have a physiological problem obviously that can affect your thinking but we're talking about issues of the brain. If you have a brain injury, if you have retardation, if you have Alzheimer's, these are brain issues. But what we're doing here with ADHD We're essentially talking about behavioral problems. We're talking about concentration problems. We're talking about problems of personality, spiritual problems. And we're treating them as if they are brain problems. And the truth of the matter is, medical professionals and those who prescribe the ADHD medication that we're talking about really have no idea what they're doing. Listen to this. The report which found that toddlers covered by Medicaid are particularly prone to be put on medications such as Ritalin and Adderall, is among the first efforts to gauge the diagnosis of ADHD in children below age four. Doctors at the Georgia Mental Health Forum at the Carter Center in Atlanta, where the data was presented, as well as several outside experts, strongly criticized the use of medication in so many children that young. The American Academy of Pediatrics standard practice guidelines for ADHD did not even address the diagnosis in children three and younger, let alone the use of such stimulant medications because their safety and effectiveness have barely been explored in that age group. Now again, listen to this. Anita Zervignon-Haix, a children's mental health consultant to the Carter Center said this, it's absolutely shocking and it shouldn't be happening. People are just feeling around in the dark. We obviously don't have our act together for little children. Dr. Lawrence H. Diller, a behavioral pediatrician in Walnut Creek, California, said in a telephone interview, people prescribing to two-year-olds are just winging it. It is outside the standard of care, and they should be subject to malpractice if something goes wrong with a kid. Now these are insiders. Now let me remind you of what the insiders, the medical professionals, are saying. They're saying that we're just feeling around in the dark. They're saying we're just winging it. They're saying if something goes wrong, we're talking about malpractice. Now Matt Walsh over at the Matt Walsh blog speaks with an appropriate amount of indignation to this issue. He says this, Giving your two-year-old a Schedule II narcotic in order to control their behavior is dangerous, immoral, and violent. The doctors who prescribe this stuff to babies should lose their licenses and be tossed in a cage alongside the other crack dealers. Crack dealers who, for the most part, at least have the decency to wait until a kid is out of diapers before turning him into a lifelong customer. Pause for a moment, friends, and contemplate this. It's illegal to give a 20-year-old a beer, but legal to give a two-year-old some speed. Just let that thought marinate. Now, Walsh goes on. He did some research of his own. He went out to WebMD. Obviously, this is where you can get medical advice on the web. We've used it ourselves many, many times. And WebMD has a section dedicated to ADHD in toddlers. And the section that talks about early symptoms, early symptoms of ADHD in toddlers, tells us this, toddlers and preschoolers with ADHD may be unable to sit still, follow even simple directions or control impulses. They may become angry for no reason and hit their peers or siblings. They tend to be impatient, breaking in line on the playground or interrupting others when they are talking or playing. They may move constantly, jump from one activity to another and have a high level of energy and a low sense of danger and perhaps a high threshold for pain. When shopping, they may refuse to sit in the shopping cart or stroller. They may take items from the shelves and open them or throw tantrums if you don't buy something they want. Now again, that from WebMD and these are the symptoms, early warning signs of ADHD in toddlers. But let's be honest. Do we not all have children who act in these ways? Is this not a description of all toddlers, of all two-year-olds and three-year-olds and the typical behavior that we see in that particular age group? In his typical sarcasm, Walsh comments further. He says this, God help me. My kids are only one, but they're already beginning to exhibit many of these symptoms. Last week, my daughter fussed when we put her in the cart at BJ's. This morning, my son crawled all over the living room and refused to sit still. I tried to give him some worksheets to complete before breakfast, but he just tried to eat them. My wife and I immediately alerted our doctors, but since our doctors are not insane, they informed us that one-year-olds will often, and surprisingly, behave like one-year-olds. Again, this brings us back to one of the major issues that is before us today. It is the issue of a medicated culture. We're looking for a quick fix for everything that ails us in this, well, this culture of ease and this culture of pleasure in which we find ourselves. We're looking for instant gratification. We're looking for instant gratification even in the area of dealing with our children. We are averse to work and we are averse to doing the hard work of, well, training children to be who and what they should be. And part of this issue is that We are, as a culture, not treating kids as individuals created in the image of God. We're treating children in a cookie-cutter fashion. We want them all to be just like every other child. But again, that's not reality. That's not how people are wired. That's not how God has made us. And again, when we speak of children reflecting the image of God, we're talking about something wonderful. Yes, there are problems, there are issues in a fallen world. But at the same time, we're talking about each person, each child, being created uniquely, fearfully and wonderfully made. Each child has a unique mix of personality and talents and gifts and desires and impulses and anticipations. And certainly, many of those impulses are sinful, many of those impulses are wrong, and many of those impulses are problematic. And so we have to deal with those lovingly, but again, we don't want to, well, we don't want to simply medicate children and ruin that unique personality slash gift slash talent mix that God has given each individual. And what we're talking about here, of course, are so-called experts who are really not experts at all in this particular area. Obviously, we appreciate the medical profession. We appreciate those physicians who have studied long and hard and worked long and hard and have a measure of expertise in their particular areas. But I would say that they're no different from the rest of us who have, well, a certain amount of expertise in the things that we've been given to do. They just simply happen to be experts in their particular areas. But at the same time, in this area, when we're dealing with the mind, when we're dealing with the personality, Well, no one's an expert there and again it brings me back to saying that we have fallen into a grievous error when we think that everything in a fallen world has a fix and when we think that everything has a quick fix. Again, part of the reality here is that parents are not taking responsibility for training their children. One of the Individuals on the panel at this particular conference, Dr. Visser, said that effective non-pharmacological treatments, such as teaching parents and daycare workers to provide more structured environments for children, were often ignored. Listen to this. Families of toddlers with behavioral problems are coming to the doctor's office for help, and the help they're getting too often is a prescription for a class 2 controlled substance. which has not been established as safe for that young of a child. It puts these children and their developing minds at risk and their health is at risk. Well, Dr. Visser is right, but don't overlook what she said. Families, listen to this, families of toddlers with behavioral problems are coming to the doctor's office for help and the help they're getting too often is a prescription for a class 2 controlled substance. Again, don't miss what she said and the larger issue. They come for help, but the help that they need is help in dealing with their children. They don't need to medicate their children. They need to train their children. And this is an issue for the church. Christians so often buy into this kind of thinking, the medical model psychology. the quick fix model of the culture in which we find ourselves. And Christians, quite frankly, these days, they're just as busy as non-Christians. And in many, many cases, not only are they just as busy, just as experience and entertainment oriented, they're just as self-centered at times. And because of these issues, because of these things, just as neglectful of their children. And that's what we're talking about. We're talking about giving a pill to our children so they will behave the way that we want them to behave so that we really don't have to put a whole lot of effort into training them or take a whole lot of time in training them. Again, I'm painting with a broad brush, but these are some of the symptoms, these are some of the problems, these are some of the issues that a lot of folk are actually deeming with. We're talking about, well, not being inconvenienced. We're talking about giving our children some medication, again, so they don't get in the way of what it is that we're trying to do. And so often we don't really see this. I'm reminded of another story that's in the news these days. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife, Shirlane McCray, said in an interview with New York Magazine that she had mixed feelings about balancing career and motherhood. She said this, I was 40 years old, I had a life, The truth is, I could not spend every day with my daughter. I didn't want to do that. I looked for all kinds of reasons not to do it. It took a long time for me to get into, I'm taking care of kids and what that means. She admitted to feeling guilty about her experience with her daughter. She basically says, I'm a bad mom. Well, I appreciate her honesty. And I appreciate the fact that she feels guilty. But here's the reality. It's not to attack her in any way, shape, or form. It's to say there is an answer for guilt. And that answer, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is repentance. It is changing. It is moving in a different direction. And it is by grace. And it is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But how many Christian parents put career ahead of their children? How many Christian parents put free time ahead of their children? How many Christian parents put the things that they want to pursue ahead of their children? They think they're doing what is required of them by taking them to Sunday school, perhaps, by dropping them off at school, perhaps, but spending very little time actually training their children. Again, if there is this sense of guilt, there is hope, there is forgiveness, there is grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. But what if you're in the middle of it? And what if you just realized? The Bible is very clear. Deuteronomy 6 tells us, well, something very simple. It says you need to train your children. And you do this when you get up. You do it when you walk in the way. You do it when you're sitting at the table. You do it when you go to bed. In short, children are part of your lives and you're training them all of the time. You're dialoguing with them about everything under the sun from a Christian worldview. That's what it means to train your children. Obviously, there are details, but we're talking about saturation. We're talking about engaging them. We're talking about spending time with them. And the reality, of course, is that life is tough. And we have to sacrifice. We have to sacrifice our time. We have to sacrifice, perhaps, certain goals that we had. We have to sacrifice for our children and for the glory of God. They have to sacrifice for the advance of the kingdom. And if a child has behavior problems, well, this is going to take a lot of patience. It's going to take a lot of prayer. It's going to take a lot of training. It's going to take a lot of love. And medication, quite frankly, in these particular issues, we're talking especially about toddlers, two- and three-year-olds, medication is a cop-out. It says, I don't care. It says, I just want peace. When we're talking about medicating toddlers for ADHD, There's a very real sense in which we're talking about abuse. But again, the answer is the gospel, the gospel of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you have children who are not submitting to the Lord Jesus Christ and for years and years have not and will not submit to the Lord Jesus Christ, the answer is still the gospel for them and for you. If there is need of repentance, God is gracious to forgive. But if you've done everything you know how to do, If you poured yourself into your children, if you trained your children, again, there is grace, there is peace, there is the comfort of God, there is hope, hope for the future, and there is rest in the Lord, even if there is no possible future, there is rest in the Lord, for He does that which is right. Sometimes when we look at long-term issues, sometimes we look at the future, well, we have an option. we have a choice either we can complain because there is no God but it really amounts to nothing it's a false complaint as it were or we can trust that there is a God and in that case we don't complain because we know that which he does is right we know he's good we know he's full of grace and mercy and so what we do is We rest. Oh, there are times when we cry out. There are times when our hearts are broken. There are times when we lament. But in the end, and through it all, we trust in His sovereign grace. And that gives us hope. That gives us peace. And that gives us the focus that we need. So the answer, of course, as always, is the Gospel. You've been listening to The Dean's List, a brief analysis of views and culture of a biblical worldview. Sign up to receive The Dean's List via email along with other items of interest at TheDean'sListCommentary at gmail.com or simply go to our website www.TrueWorldView.net where you'll find other helpful resources. I'm Paul Dean. Join me next time for The Dean's List.