There aren’t many conversations that produce more anxiety in me than “The Sex Talk” I’ll someday have with my girls. For context, my daughters are 3 and 1 and I’m already uneasy as I anticipate having sex talks with them. But sex education for kids, from their parents, is important. If I’m honest, so much of my discomfort with guiding my girls through their understanding of sexuality exists because of my parents’ lack of intentionality in guiding my own. I wasn’t even prepared when I got my first period and I feel unprepared to be the primary sex educator for my children.
I don’t want my girls to experience unnecessary shame about their sexuality. God didn’t intend for sex to involve shame. Shame is a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior. I don’t believe God’s design for sex was for it to be painful, humiliating, or foolish and that has not been my experience of sex in my marriage. However, I haven’t felt equipped to know when or what to share with my children that will give them a healthy view of their sexuality—until now.
Sex is a gift.
Parents, God gave you your sexuality as a precious gift. God gave your child the gift of sexuality as well. If handled responsibly, the gift of sex will be a source of blessing and delight. How can parents make this happen? From their earliest years, children are bombarded with destructive, misleading messages about the nature of sexual intimacy, about marriage, about family, about the boundaries associated with godly sexual expression, and even about the basic creative design of humanity as male and female.
Parents are a child’s primary sex educators.
God means for parents to be their children’s primary sex educators. The first messages a person receives about sex are the most powerful. Why wait until your child hears distorted views and then try to correct the misunderstanding? Sexuality is beautiful. Why not present it to your child in the way God intended? Sex education in the family is less about giving biological information and more about shaping your child’s moral character.
It’s not too early to tell your kids the truth about sex.
It is possible to prepare your kids now for the pressures and relationships they’ll experience as teens and adults. These award-winning, illustrated books give you age-appropriate, biblically based information to help you talk openly with your children about sex and answer their questions about God’s design for families:
God’s Design for Sex Series, Book 1: The Story of Me (ages 3-5)
God’s Design for Sex Series, Book 2: Before I Was Born (ages 5-8)
God’s Design for Sex Series, Book 3: What’s the Big Deal? Why God Cares About Sex
God’s Design for Sex Series, Book 4: Facing the Facts: The Truth About Sex and You
Did your parents have “The Sex Talk” with you? What do you wish they had told you?
