When a song wins the MTV Video Music Award for “Song of the Year”, we need to sit up and take notice. And when that song tops the charts in over 50 countries, has well over 2 billion views on YouTube, and an equally ridiculously large number of streams on Spotify, you know that the kids are listening. In this case, the fact that the song is an extremely-catchy pop-punk tune – the kind of which serves as a kind of entry-level pop song for even the youngest of our kids – you know that the appeal is deep and wide. And, you know that the song is effectively teaching lessons about the way the world is, the way the world should be, and how to find and live one’s place in it.
The song I’m referencing here is the Rosé/Bruno Mars colloberation, “APT.” The 3-minute ditty communicates some very clear messages that should trouble those of us who are working to lead our kids into living their lives to the glory of God, rather than to the glory of the world, the flesh, and the devil. There are messages about relationships, sexuality, alcohol use, and what’s most important to pursue in one’s life.
As we’ve done here at CPYU in the past, we’ve worked to give you, your parents, and your students a tool to help you get started in the process of discerning and responding to the messages we encounter in the media. Today, we’re posting a new 3(D) review of “APT.” In it, we begin a process that we encourage you to continue with the kids you know, love, and lead. We need to think with them about “APT.”, helping them to Discover the song’s worldview, to Discern how that worldview measures up under the light of Scripture, and to Decide how to best respond to the song.
I encourage you to download our 3(D) review of “APT”, to share it with others in your ministry, and to talk about it with your kids. And, we encourage you to go further by using our How to Use Your Head to Guard Your Heart: 3(D) Guide to Making Wise Media Choices, a teaching tool you can put in the hands of all your students.
One of the greatest responsibilities we have as followers of Christ is the cultivation of biblically-based wisdom and skills in discernment in ourselves and in the next generation!