Some years ago a Christian doctor wrote a book entitled The Highly Healthy Teen. This title popped into my mind as I started thinking about writing this post. What would “highly healthy” teen sexuality look like? And how would teens know? How would teens know how they should think about sex and about how they should deal with their emerging sexual feelings?
How would they know how to please God in this area of their lives?
They need to know. Their world is filled with unhealthy, dangerous misinformation, and outright lies about sex, and they are tempted to engage in all kinds of sexual immorality, even encouraged to do so, and frequently mocked if they don’t.
Teens need to know what healthy sexuality for them looks like.
How will they know? Will they find out from
. . . Parents? But parents can be embarrassed about bringing up the subject of sex and many parents feel inadequate to do so. They don’t know when to begin this conversation or what to say or how to say it.
. . . The church? But the church has too often been silent on the subject, giving the impression that there is something wrong with sexual feelings and with having sex. A professor of Christian ethics at a theological seminary in eastern Europe told me he had tried to address this issue in a clear, respectful, fun way. He prepared two colorful posters, one titled “Lust” and the other “Love.” When he offered free copies to churches he was told “We can’t display those! They have the word ‘sex” on them.!”
. . . The school? School officials have taken on this responsibility, precisely because, they say, parents don’t and can’t, because they lack the knowledge to do so. .But what do the schools teach? Do they teach healthy sexuality, or do they have a different agenda?
. . . Your teens’ peers? But where does their peers’ information come from?
. . . The Internet? From social media “friends,” or “Influencers,” or porn sites? When the topic of pornography comes up in my seminars with young adults inevitably one of the young men asks “Bot if I don’t watch porn, how will I know how to have sex?”
How will teens know how to honor God in their relationships with the opposite sex? How will they know the truth about gender, about the meaning and purpose of sex, , about real love? Only from loving, concerned Christian adults who know God‘s Word and how he has wired the human body for intimate male – female relationships, individuals who are willing to have the sex conversations.
Are you such a person for the teens you know? Are you ready for discussions about sex?
