Jim Burns tackles a lifetime of parental awkwardness in a brisk 121 pages. The central thesis: Only parents can teach their children about sex effectively. Unfortunately, we still blush when we say erection and ejaculation. Teaching Your Children Healthy Sexuality encourages age-appropriate and open dialogue about sex with your children.
Burns presents detailed material on exactly how to do this, starting from age 3. Be warned, Burns does not subscribe to the “do as I say, not as I do” philosophy. He devotes an entire chapter to the need for parents to live and model healthy sexuality first. (By the way, that advice applies to youth workers, too.)
Fortunately, Burns also wrote The Purity Code, a book for parents and middle-schoolaged children to read together. Going way beyond “The Talk,” Burns weaves Scripture, popular culture, real life examples, science and parenting into an excellent resource to start the dialogue about sex in your home.
You could use this material in a youth group setting, but you’ll greatly reduce its effectiveness if you leave out parents.
