is a full-on tactical assault by the enemy of our
souls for the lives and future of our families. It
is high time we embrace our mantle as parents
and embrace our responsibility to have the
conversations about sexuality and purity our
children and culture desperately need.
Following are seven conversations you should
have with your children about purity.
1. God always wants what’s best and healthiest
for us.
Our God is not a cosmic killjoy. In fact, His Word
says that in His presence is “fullness of joy” and
at His right hand are “pleasures forevermore”
(Psalm 16:11 ESV). When it comes to matters
of our heart and mind, when God issues a
command—like the one to reserve sex for
marriage (Hebrews 13:4)—He does so for our
benefit. Our children’s mental, emotional, and
physical health will be protected as they yield
to God’s boundaries. These boundaries are not
there simply for restriction’s sake, but rather
serve as a guardrail protecting them from the
pitfalls of operating outside God’s will.
In our home, conversations about sex outside of
marriage and sexual purity are laced with grace
and urgency. We have a home that has been
touched by the forgiveness found in Christ, but
this does not negate our responsibility to teach
our children the standard God has for our lives.
2. What we allow into our mind and heart
matters.
Our actions follow our thought processes. Jesus
said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles
them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart,
that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality,
theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
All these evils come from inside and defile a
person” (Mark 7:20-23). This means that where
the mind goes, so go we. It makes sense, then,
that we should feed righteous thoughts and
spend our time thinking about things that, when
built upon, will help us choose righteousness.
As difficult as it can be to fight against our
culture and sometimes even our kids, we are
the guardians of our home, and what we allow
into our children’s minds matters. This should
directly impact…
• what we watch on television
• the music we listen to
• the video games we play
• the books, articles, and posts we read
• the conversations we have
• the daydreams and fantasies we allow to
grow in our minds
I have a close friend who has learned to identify
the times when her mind is the weakest in
fighting sinful thoughts. It’s when she lies in bed
too long in the morning. So for a while we set
up an accountability system where she would
check in with me when she got up and going.
This is proactive behavior.
3. Any perversion is a distortion of reality.
Our kids don’t have to look for pornography
anymore; it comes looking for them. Just a few
months ago one of my daughters who loves to
read was told that, although there would be no
more books in her favorite series, people were
writing their own and she could find them online.
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