sex ed

Sexting. It's a classic tale as old as time: Boy meets girl. Boy and girl hook up. Girl texts boy risqué photos. Boy and girl break up. Boy shares risqué photos with friends. Okay, maybe it isn't a classic tale, but if sexting stats are any indication, it's an all-too-common tale today. And it's a story parents need to be aware of. "Sexting"—sending or sharing nude or partially nude photos or videos—is alarmingly common among teens. How do we prevent it? How do we deal with it when it impacts our teen? First, it's important to know the numbers. Here are some of the most recent sexting ...Read More

We all have a sexual history, but for some of us that history is more riddled with sin than we would like to admit. You might know someone who glided through adolescence, young adulthood, and engagement with a firm resolve to say no to sexual sin. They got to the altar on their wedding day with little or maybe no regrets. Then there's the rest of us. Now that we—the guilty ones—are parents and watching our kids grow up, we know we should teach our kids about godly sexuality, but we feel terribly unqualified. We didn't receive the best sex ed from our parents. And to top it off, we also feel like our past ...Read More

This post is focused on talking about masturbation. It's written for parents, especially scared parents, about how to talk to boys about masturbation. I learned about masturbation probably the same way other guys did: I discovered it on my own. No one talked to me about it. No one told me how to do it. I didn't even have a name for it for the first several years of my adolescence. It wasn't included in any "sex talks" from my parents or the public school system. It wasn't until I heard a group friends at school joking around about "jacking off" that I discovered that I wasn't all that unique in my secret habits. When ...Read More

Today, I'm going to focus on the subject of how to talk to young boys about masturbation. Since we released The Talk (our sex-ed Bible study for families) probably the most common question we've had from parents is this: How do I talk to my son about the subject of masturbation? Masturbation, for many boys, is something they will experiment with in their lives—at least a few times, if not habitually. According to The Janus Report on Sexual Behavior, 25% of adult men say they masturbate daily or several times a week. 55% percent said they masturbate daily to monthly.   As for teen boys, it is very ...Read More

Can a mom educate her sons about sex? As a mom of five boys (and no girls), my husband and I like to joke about all testosterone dominance in the house. When I am around my four nieces, I think, "So this is what calmness feels like." I know my little boys will some day be men. My oldest is now 9 years old. I know puberty is on the way, and with that, my oldest will start experiencing all the chaos and confusion of raging hormones, crushes, and sexual temptations. I want him to be well prepared. My husband has thankfully taken the lead on some of the official "sex talks" with our oldest. I love knowing that ...Read More

Should you talk to your 8-year-old about sexual intercourse? How about your 6 or 7 year old? I recently wrote a parent-child Bible study called The Talk: 7 Lessons to Introduce Your Child to Biblical Sexuality. The study is geared for children ages 6-10 years old. After about 3,000 people downloaded it the first weekend it was out, amidst the positive remarks I started hearing concerns. They usually sounded something like this: "These lessons are filled with good information and all, but isn't 6-10 years old too young? Won't this make them too curious too soon?" A Respectful Disclaimer Every child, of course, is ...Read More

How (and when) do you talk to your kids about sex? Often, Christian parents don't want to tell their children about sex and sexuality until its time to gear up for adolescence. These parents fear saying "too much too soon." Unfortunately, the fear of too much too soon often means we speak too little too late. The World is Screaming about Sexual Values If parents are silent about sex, the world is more than happy to fill the void. We need to be able to talk to our kids about sex first. ...Read More