Have you ever been to a concert where you could feel the music thumping in your chest because it was so loud?
Or in a stadium when a team is on the verge of making a play that could send them into overtime? (This is as good as my sports metaphors get. For real)
Can you picture it? Can you hear it?
The noise. Overwhelming. Fully surrounding. Jumbled.
This is often what comes to mind when I am talking to my girls about the world versus the Word.
To try to break through the overwhelming jumbled messages of our culture to point them to Jesus.
We live in a world that is defined by the Kardashian’s clothes and Justin Bieber’s latest break-up.
This is the culture that develops and defines the way that many teenagers view relationships and sex.
What is appropriate is being stretched, and stretched so thin that what was at one time culturally black and white in “rightness” is now fuzzy and gray.
Turn on the tv. Log onto Facebook. Listen to the radio.
The messages that our girls are receiving about their worth and the purpose of sex are so twisted.
They are watching tv shows with main characters who cannot choose between partners.
They are listening to music sung by women who are with one man but thinking of another.
They are going to school with peers who are sexually active starting in the pre-teen years.
They are watching their parents work out relationship issues on social media for all to see.
It is time for us to reel them back in. To turn our eyes to the truth.
To fight through the noise and seek Jesus.
What do the girls in your ministry need to hear about sex?
1. Gods plan for sex is perfect.
Sex is meant for one man and one woman who have entered into covenant marriage. See God’s plan clearly stated in Genesis 1:27-28, 2:21-25. Any sexual activity outside of this covenant God lays out in scripture is sin. Sin displeases and grieves the heart of God. God desires that “you may become blameless and pure.” (Philippians 2:15)
2. We must arm ourselves for battle.
Read Ephesians 6:10-18. And repeat. We must put on the full armor of God. Each day. Battle will come. How will we handle it? We will stand firm in Jesus and flee from sexual immorality. (1 Corinthians 6:18)
3. God restores when we fall.
Jehovah-Rapha…Our God heals! Read Psalm 51. The story of David and Bathsheba. David felt that he may be scarred for life by his sin but he turned to God for healing. Because of Jesus, we can experience forgiveness. Grace upon grace. We will be renewed and restored. Free from the bondage of sin!
Excerpt from Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot: “God has a plan for us, and it is good. We have the choice to choose His plan or deviate from it. As believers and followers of Christ, we know that choosing God’s plan honors Him while choosing the world and its passions will dishonor God. We must recognize sin and flee from it.”
This is certainly a conversation topic that can be uncomfortable to have with our girls, but we must not flee from it due to fear. Each day in some form or fashion the world is presenting them with different versions of right and wrong. It is our responsibility to present them just as often with the truth of scripture and point them to Jesus.
The noise of the world is not going to quiet down. So our response? We fight the noise with truth.
This post was written by Amy Byrd, Director of Girls Ministry at Hunter Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL.