Only recently have parents begun teaching their children openly about inappropriate sexual relations. In the past, this was a taboo subject and children were left to learn from friends off the street or personal experience. Today, parents are fighting back. They are stepping up with open conversations to protect their children from the pain and suffering that comes from disobeying this most important of commandments.
In our home, we waited until our children were teenagers before having “the talk.” Our children are having “the talk” with their 8-10-year-old children and they are thinking they might have to start even earlier than that. Fighting back means understanding the why of this most precious of doctrines.
There are just too many evil forces out in the world and parents absolutely have to be ready to be the first influencers in their children’s lives. We can’t be afraid to be honest and blunt. We can’t be shamed into silence when we are the ones who hold the very knowledge of exaltation.
Recently, I looked up several talks given by the Brethren on chastity and love. There is so much good advice and profound thought, I urge you to look up these talks for yourself and glean this powerful information. Truth and testimony are powerful.
Mark E. Petersen—No True Worship Without Chastity
A minister, speaking to a group of college students in the 1960s, said, “Sex is fun—premarital sex is beautiful—we all ought to relax and stop feeling guilty about our sexual activities, thoughts, and desires.” After quoting this minister, Elder Petersen stated boldly and without apology, “To reject or try to change the moral law of God is to reject God.”
Bruce C. Hafen—The Gospel and Romantic Love
In the 1970s, The American Psychiatric Association voted to remove homosexuality from its list of disorders. At that time, most psychotherapists believed and were teaching that “dogmatism, inflexibility, and that [being extremely religious] is essentially emotional disturbance.” Elder Hafen explains, “In other words, the way to relieve one’s guilt about an immoral life is to begin believing there is no such thing as an immoral life.”
Spencer W. Kimball—Love vs. Lust
This is a very honest and blunt talk given by a prophet of God. What he says should shake us to the core.
“I believe the youth of Zion want to hear the clear and unmistakable tones of the trumpet, and it is my hope that I can play the tune with accuracy and precision so that no honest person will ever be confused. I hope fervently that I am making clear the position of the Lord and His Church on these unmentionable practices.
“Masturbation, a rather common indiscretion, is not approved of the Lord nor of His Church regardless of what may have been said by others whose ‘norms’ are lower. Latter-day Saints are urged to avoid this practice.
“Sometimes masturbation is the introduction to the more serious sins of exhibitionism and the gross sin of homosexuality.
“My beloved young folks do not excuse petting and body intimacies. I am positive that if this illicit, illegal, improper, and lustful habit of ‘petting’ could be wiped out, that fornication would soon be gone from our world.”
Ezra Taft Benson—The Law of Chastity
Do we correlate chastity with murder? “Very few of us will ever be guilty of murder or of the sin against the Holy Ghost. But the law of chastity is frequently broken, and yet it stands next to these other sins in seriousness in the eyes of the Lord.”
President Benson uses the old saying, “It is better to prepare and prevent than it is to repair and repent” and offers eleven steps to help us arrive safely to the other side if we’ve stayed pure as well as if we’ve messed up. God is a loving and forgiving God and it is our choice to follow Him.
Jeffrey R. Holland—Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments
Each of these talks I’ve listed has been powerful as they warn us of the misery that is found in breaking God’s law of chastity. Elder Holland explains further why this law cannot be changed and why it is so sacred to never be abused.
“Of all the titles he has chosen for himself, Father is the one he declares, and Creation is his watchword—especially human creation, creation in his image. His glory isn’t a mountain, as stunning as mountains are. It isn’t in sea or sky or snow or sunrise, as beautiful as they all are. It isn’t in art or technology, be that a concerto or computer. No, his glory—and his grief—is in his children. You and I, we are his prized possessions, and we are the earthly evidence, however inadequate, of what he truly is. Human life—that is the greatest of God’s powers, the most mysterious and magnificent chemistry of it all—and you and I have been given it, but under the most serious and sacred of restrictions. You and I who can make neither mountain nor moonlight, not one raindrop nor a single rose—yet we have this greater gift in an absolutely unlimited way. And the only control placed on us is self-control—self-control born of respect for the divine sacramental power it is.”
These talks are worth your time in reading thoroughly. They are warnings to be sure, but mostly they are words of love for Heavenly Father’s children to understand better this power we have been given and how best to use it to find happiness and eternal joy.