Now that the Center for Disease Control has revealed that 1 in 4 high school girls have a sexually transmitted disease, do you think it’s time to emphasize abstinence as the only 100% certain way to avoid the negative consequences of pre-marital sex?  Of course, liberals will have a conniption over such a suggestion.  But what is often forgotten by those who emphasize contraception as the answer is that the consequences of pre-marital sex are not merely physical.   There are intense emotional, mental, psychological, and spiritual consequences to having sex outside of marriage.  There is no condom for the heart.  Moreover, we should not be concerned only with avoiding the negatives of pre-marital sex, but the benefits of saving yourself for your husband or wife.  (Some mistakenly think the Bible is silent on pre-maritial sex, but it’s covered by the word “fornication.” Click here for more on that.)

Unfortunately, many parents are reluctant to give the abstinence message.  It’s not because they think their kids would be incapable or unwilling to comply, but because they themselves were not abstinent when they were teenagers.  “How could I be such a hypocrite,” they think.  Well, there’s a difference between being a hypocrite and being a teacher.  Hypocrites tell you not to do something while they willingly do it themselves.  Teachers, on the other hand, know that they’ve hurt themselves and others by their past sins and mistakes and want to teach you to take the better path.

I’m not suggesting that you reveal to your kids your own sexual history.  I’m simply saying that you don’t need to be morally perfect to be a good parent or a teacher.  We have no trouble teaching our kids not to steal despite the fact that every one of us has stolen something in our lives.  It’s time we applied that same logic to the issue of sex.  We can spare our kids a lot of pain, and protect them for their future, if we do.