Stop & Think

Ok, so I’m catching up on some of my blog reading, trying to come to grips with this world we live in… And I come across a link to an abstinence education site, Stop & Think.

This is a program that’s currently being funded by the Department of Health and Human Services and is geared toward students in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana.

There are some real gems here, especially on the “The Top 5 Questions Teens Ask About Sex–When Parents Aren’t Around” page:

3. Isn’t sex a good and natural thing? If so, why wait?

Like our hunger for food, sex is a natural urge. Just as it is against our nature to deny our natural hunger urge (which I try to satisfy as soon as possible), it may seem crazy that we would deny our natural urge for sex.

There are exceptions to this rule. There is a time and place to deny our natural urges. Several years ago a friend named Ben and I came home from a long run on a hot day. Ben burst through the front door and headed for the refrigerator. Without even thinking, he decided to satisfy his natural urge to drink something. He started chugging a carton of orange juice. The next thing I knew, he was spitting it out. The juice was chunky and rotten.

Even though sex is a natural urge (like Ben’s thirst) many teens choose not to satisfy the urge immediately. Many teens choose to deny their natural urge and wait because they believe their decision will benefit them in the long run. It is natural to feel a sexual urge and want to express it. Like Ben realizing he was drinking rotten orange juice, many teens who act on their sexual urge discover sex isn’t all they thought it would be. I don’t know anyone who regrets waiting until marriage for sex.

I guess maybe Ben should wait till he’s married to have a drink of water…

Also, clicking through to the “For Students Only” section leads to a site called Cool Maynard. (Check the “FAQ’s”, and then “Sexual Consequences”…) It must be cool to be named “Maynard” in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. Who knew?

By the way, I’m not suggesting that I think that every teenager should be going out there and having sex. I know a lot of you folks reading this are parents and will one day have to deal with these very same issues. No one wants their son going out and making babies at 15, or their daughter getting knocked up at 14. No one wants their child to get an STD.

Yes, sex is a natural urge. Yes, sex is is something that a teenager should “Stop & Think” about before engaging in. What pisses me off about these sites is the completely black and white way in which they deal with what is not a black and white issue. They fail to acknowledge that there are going to be teenagers out there who aren’t reading their Bibles or praying to Jesus hard enough who might be tempted to have sex. They fail to acknowledge that sex is something that can be shared successfully between two adults who aren’t married.

Talk with your kids about sex. Give them the facts. Give them all of the facts. Be there for them and communicate with them as the young adults that they’re becoming, not the 40 year old virgins you wish they could be.