In a recent Washington Stand commentary, Joshua Arnold presented the argument that the rise in school shootings reflects both a mental health and a spiritual crisis. While I agree, I would like to add another layer to the discussion.

We, as a society, have created the mental health crisis in our country. We must take responsibility for the struggles our teens and young adults are experiencing. A new psychotropic drug or another type of therapy will not solve this mess. More social programs will not solve it.

Contrary to many accounts, COVID didn’t create the crisis — COVID revealed it. Long before the pandemic, the mental health of our youth was in sharp decline. According to a report from the United Hospital Fund, the number of adolescents per 100,000 who had a major depressive episode increased by nearly 150% from 8,063 cases in 2011 to 19,863 cases in 2021.

In addition, more than one in five (22%) of high school students considered suicide, while one in 10 (10%) attempted suicide. High school girls are much more likely than boys to consider suicide or suffer a depressive episode.

Turning to the latest report on youth behavior from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we find that teenagers who feel sad and hopeless are three times more likely to use illicit drugs, 1.5 times more likely to drink and drive, 2.3 times more likely to engage in binge drinking, and 1.3 times more likely to have sex without using any method of contraception. The research also found that two out of 10 girls reported experiencing sexual violence, and one in 10 said they had been forced to have sex.

Why such grim statistics and hopelessness in today’s teens? Why do we have a crisis on our hands? To answer these questions, we must look beneath the numbers and the behaviors to the cause. By declaring a mental health crisis, we have diverted our attention from the solution. We have created a false narrative that will not bring the healing our children need. Only more headaches and more heartaches.

From the emptiness of poverty to the overindulgence of privilege, children's heart needs are not being met. The neglect of their heart needs is the reason for the escalation in violence, rising suicide rates, the acceptance of transgender ideology, and the list goes on. Kids from one extreme to the other are failing out of life and falling out of life.

Scripture tells us in Proverbs 4:23, “Out of the heart flow the issues of life.” In Luke 4:65, we find, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Emphasis mine.)

I would ask you to read these verses with me again, maybe even a third time, slowly, resting on each word. As we study these verses, it becomes clear the content of the heart, whether good, bad, or ugly, informs what a child will think, say, or do. Not the other way around.

We have failed too many in this generation because we neglected the education of their hearts, in favor of filling their minds with facts, figures, and falsehoods. We have filled them with instruction that has led to confusion, anxiety, depression, chaos, and the loss of life. Without the heart knowledge of absolute truth, all our children have is feelings upon which to base their decisions. Wisdom and discernment are absent from their arsenal of defense.

In our terribly confusing world, filled with conflicting messages, teens can’t make sense of the nonsensical. Without the education of their hearts, children and teens are helpless to stand against the manipulations of those seeking to capture their minds and mislead them. Like defenseless lambs, they will be led astray by cultural predators.

The answer to the mental health crisis is in filling the hearts of our children with absolute truth, grounded in love, respect, humility, and resiliency before the world has an opportunity to turn their hearts cold. We must do the hard work of heart work to protect their minds from the negative influences of our culture. In so doing, we will keep those hearts fertile soil for the Good News of the gospel to find its way in, which brings the ultimate answer.

Returning to Scripture, we find in Proverbs 23:7, “For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” The profound simplicity of God’s word is breathtaking, isn’t it?

Even science is catching up to Scripture. In her book, “The Heart Speaks,” Dr. Mimi Guarneri, medical director of the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine, states:

“Each beat of the heart sends complex signals to the brain and other organs. These heart signals are capable of reaching higher brain centers, ultimately affecting our reasons and choices, our emotions and perceptions. Apparently, the heart has not only its own language but its own mind.”

Our children need someone to shepherd them to adulthood by preparing them for the world, while protecting them from its encroachment. Children must be trained to defend their beliefs and defeat their foes, from within and without.

We must raise a generation of strong hearts, morally courageous kids, grounded in Truth, and fortified with self-respect who will be able to stand against the culture to lead their generation in the right direction. 

When we tend their hearts well, children will discover Whose they are so they can become who they are meant to be.

We can thank the Lord, we have the Answer: The healing of our children’s minds begins in their hearts.

Jill Garner is the founder and creative director of Manners of the Heart.