Godly parents teach their children about sex

We live in a sex saturated society, it is all around us, in adverts on TV, on posters at the bus stop, in films.  That means that it is all around our children provoking questions, raising curiosity from a very young age.  By the time our children are teenagers they will have heard hundreds of messages to do with body image and sex.  Certainly I am aware that my four boys are already being bombarded by those messages every day.

But parents are the most important sexual educators of our children, and let me plead with you do not, DO NOT, abdicate that God given role.  Why?  Because society will willingly take the role on if you don't, in fact society will try to wrestle that role from you even if you do, and it will not teach sex as a beautiful, precious and godly gift to be enjoyed at its best.

Sex in the bible is a beautiful thing, it is a precious gift from God, it is vital to marriage, and in some ways is integral in the descriptions of intimacy which illustrates the intimacy God wants to have with the believer.

Let me say that there is no 'right age' at which to talk to your children about sex.  But there is also no one off talk about sex to be had (or got through whilst you drive with your eyes firmly fixed on the road).  Throughout our children's lives we want to be helping them confidently affirm that God has made them as they are.  We want to teach them that there are differences between men and women, gradually helping them understand more about this as they grow up and it becomes appropriate.

And we must teach them about God's design for sex, and probably before we think we need to teach them about it.  It is a conversation that needs to be started and allowed to progress as children grow up and have more questions.  It is not a one time question and answer, it is not a one off talk, it is a continual education as a child's understanding changes, as their bodies develop, as they come across things with friends which challenge what we have taught them.  Relationship is the key to this, we must take time to develop a relationship with our children that encourages open conversation, where we are their first port of call when they have questions about sex.  And we need to take the initiative in introducing what God says about sex and then being ready to take time to answer questions and look for subsequent opportunities to discuss this as they come up.