Don’t have sex!
26 May
The message I heard growing up was, “Don’t have sex before marriage.”
I think that’s a common theme in many mainstream Christian homes.
I wonder how kids would view sex if we changed the message and lead our kids to embrace purity.
The message “Don’t have sex before marriage” allows for a measure of interpretation. Consider former President Clinton’s definition of sex.
Teaching kids to embrace purity leads them to protect mind, heart and soul from things that can harm them in the long term. Things that distract them from God’s best.
Thoughts? What’s your message to kids regarding sex?
We are spending our entire summer in our student ministry talking about sex. We're really trying to use it as a jumping off point to try and make sex part of our regular small group discussions, not just during the annual “sex series.”
We want our students to be thinking another level deeper about:
-the cultural messages about sex that they get
-the forces around them that are trying to shape their sexuality
-what intimacy really is
-what their desires are telling them about who they are and who God is
-why we need certain boundaries in our lives
-what level of responsibility they have to themselves and others
-God's grace, mercy, and forgiveness
I think you're right on Gina. I think the conversation has to be more about loving God and pleasing Him, instead of just fear-based rule following. And I hope to approach all those conversations with faith and hope instead of with fear and trembling!
I think sex is great. I just want to go on record with that.
Teaching it to my kids(the ones that live in my house) in a responsible way is the challenge. Right now I'm setting the groundwork for open communication so that when it's time, it's not an exact time; but instead a conversation that happens over time.
Amen to CoffeeWithChris (and Jonathan's remark).
It's really weird because being raised by children's ministers, I'd think I'd have a better idea of exactly what they did to lead me to embrace purity, but I can't really recall anything in particular. I can't really even give any props to my youth group because few of them were able to offer their spouse an untarnished heart. I guess it a aprt of my faith that I believed myself and not a rule I was following. The temptation and opportunity was there obviously.
Liike every part of faith, kids can't rely on their parent's or their church's worldview to guide their behavior. It has to be a personal faith that is based on their own relationship with God.
I dig Jonathan's response.
I also dig that you (Gina) tagged “former president clinton” in your post.
That should bring some awesome traffic.
I think we need to start by equipping parents with language to talk about this subject in a way that's not intimidating.
Thought:
Maybe host a “date night” a couple times a year where parents can bring a picnic blanket and a basket and the church can provide picnic food, a candle lit space and a high quality card with some discussion questions to get parents to start thinking/talking about ways to talk about purity with their kids.