I was surfing the net a couple of years ago, following links that led me into diverse blog territory.

Yeah, I was spreading my wings a bit when I came upon this. This Memorial page, which is part of a blog entitled, Journaling Through The Valley, caught my attention and I began to read about a sixteen year old boy, from a nice Christian family, who has gone to be with the Lord because of a game called “breath play.”

Matthew’s story saddened me so.

I have two teenage boys who I know extremely well, we talk about everything. I knew that this game was not something they had ever been introduced to or, of course, I would have heard of it. So as worrisome as this game may be, I was more concerned for the family that was now dealing with a terrible loss. I read through the page and just as I was finished reading through some of the links too, my husband walked past the computer.

I stopped him to talk about what I had just read. I’m sure it was the fact that eight youngsters had died from this game just within one fifty-mile radius that made him call the boys into the room.

“Have you ever heard of a game called Breath Play?”

“No.”

“Um, no.”

“Are you sure? It has something to do with cutting off your air passage until you pass out.”

“Oh, is that the name of it?”

I was shocked to hear those words!

Both of the boys were already acquainted with it, although neither knew that it was considered a game or that it was intended as a way of getting a high. One of the boys from my older son’s Christian high school had tried to talk him into trying it. Niko is pretty level headed and told the boy it was stupid. But Kyle, my younger son, never the one to turn down a dare, had been talked into trying it by an older boy both of them play with quite frequently. I was devastated. How could this be?

We talk very often with our boys about their need to care for their bodies, which is the temple of God, and to keep it pure and unsullied. We talk about the evils of smoking, drugs, and sex outside of marriage. It’s extremely frustrating to think there are things that we, as parents, are unaware of and thus unable to warn our children about.

I am so thankful that Loni had the strength and love for others in her heart to make this information available to the Internet world. Her blog was the catalyst to a very informative conversation that night, and I believe both of my boys will consider, what might seem like silly suggestions from friends, much more seriously now.

Thank you, Loni, for getting the word out.

~~~~~

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Tags: breath play