“And lead us not into temptation...”
--Matthew 6: 13 (RSV)
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification:
that you abstain from fornication;
that each one of you know how to control your own body,
in holiness and honor, not with lustful passion…”
--1 Thessalonians 4: 3-5b
“You shall not commit adultery.”
--Exodus 20: 14
As a teenager in the Sixties, you would think I’d have been sexually liberated. I was not. Instead, I was the product of puritanical parents and the subject of sex was almost taboo. Since this was a time before computers, I could not just Google® the subject to get more information, and I was too embarrassed to ask a librarian or go buy a book. In this age of innocence, I waited on the good advice of my mother.
I vividly remember the day in the seventh grade when Mother decided to give my ninth-grade-sister and me “the sex talk.” It was a weekend morning. We would usually go into our parents’ bedroom and get into bed with Mother to “snuggle bug” a bit before breakfast. We would most generally laugh and talk about fun things that had happened during the previous week at school or discuss the plans for the afternoon. That particular morning, Mother had decided to muster her courage and explain the sacred relationship between a man and a woman. She giggled and hid her head under the covers as she started to talk...
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Thoughts to Ponder/Points for Discussion
- How do your childhood memories and experiences influence the way you think about the subject of sex and how you act on those thoughts today?
- What messages about sexual behavior will you pass on to future generations? How does your faith influence these messages?
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