Defend Your Faith Devotional for KidsSample

Day 6: Hear No Evil

Noise. It can hurt your ears . . . and your life. Scientists say more than five million children ages six to nineteen suffer from noise-induced hearing loss.

God created your ears to be extremely sensitive. All the parts of your ear are intricately formed. Tiny bones, hairs, and tubes in your ears work in perfect coordination to allow you to distinguish sounds. You have 18,000 hairs in each ear, and all 18,000 could fit on the head of a pin! The two smallest muscles in your body are located in your ear. The bones, hairs, tubes, and muscles help you hear sounds as soft as zero decibels.

A whisper is around twenty decibels. Normal talking is sixty. Those noises won’t damage your ears. But if sound levels reach more than 120 decibels, then hearing damage can occur in less than thirty seconds. It takes nearly two hours of exposure to sounds of ninety decibels to create hearing loss.

To figure out if a sound is dangerous, it’s good to know that a typical hair dryer or lawn mower creates a noise of around ninety decibels. Ambulance sirens reach 120 decibels. And a jet plane (from one hundred feet away) makes sounds of more than 130 decibels. 

Hearing loss is bad, but not hearing certain things can be good. Researchers say the greatest cause of hearing loss in kids is listening to loud music through headphones. And it’s not just the sound that can be dangerous—the lyrics can also be harmful. 

Some songs mock God or celebrate immoral behaviors, like abusing alcohol, using drugs, or being sexually active before marriage. God wants you to be careful about the messages you put into your mind from songs, TV shows, and movies. He wants you to protect your ears.

Defend Your Faith

The Bible warns of a time when people will turn away from hearing the truth. When you pray to accept Christ, you become a new creation, but your sinful nature doesn’t go away. You’re still tempted to sin. It’s like you have two different voices whispering in your ears.

One voice tells you to listen to what you want—do what makes you feel good. The other voice encourages you to listen to God’s truth and live for Him. When you fill your ears with messages that go against God’s truth, it’s easier to make compromises with your faith.

Being wise with what you allow into your ears is a daily battle. Protect your ears by listening to what is pure, lovely, true, and honorable (Philippians 4:8). These kinds of messages cut through the noise, build your faith, and help you do the right things. 

We adapted this plan from another resource. Discover more ways to defend your faith at www.DefendYourFaithDevo.com.