{"id":8496,"date":"2016-09-02T07:40:13","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T11:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=8496"},"modified":"2016-09-02T07:38:33","modified_gmt":"2016-09-02T11:38:33","slug":"10-strategies-talk-sex-young-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/09\/10-strategies-talk-sex-young-adults.html","title":{"rendered":"10 Strategies to Talk Sex With Young Adults"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5810\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2014\/01\/talking-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"talking\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/>Most families I know do not talk to their young adults about sex\u00a0after high school. \u00a0Yet young adulthood is where sexually\u00a0vulnerability persists. Hormones are raging. \u00a0The culture is steeped with messages of do what feels good.<\/p>\n<p>All you have to do is turn on television or watch a movie. Sex outside of marriage is the mainstream and is no longer questioned. The saturation of sex in media along with a wildly successful and enticing pornography industry are potent cocktails continuously saturating the brain.<\/p>\n<p>Add to this the chemical high and bonding of having sex outside of marriage, delaying age of marriage, divorce rates and the acceptance of cohabitation&#8230; well there is much to fight in terms of disciplining the flesh.<\/p>\n<p>The church rarely\u00a0addresses the real issues\u00a0these young adults face\u00a0in daily. Yet, they\u00a0need support to stand\u00a0against the cultural norms. It isn&#8217;t easy!<\/p>\n<p>So here are ten suggestions if you are a parent, teacher or walking along side\u00a0a young Christian adult:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have on-going discussions about the pressures to conform, availability of pornography and how they are coping with living in a culture saturated with sex. Do they have strategies? What do they do in the moment of temptation?<\/li>\n<li>If \u00a0you watch media together or discuss a movie or show, ask them to comment on how the attitudes in media conflict with a biblical world-view. Discuss how\u00a0a\u00a0biblical view is becoming a minority view. It will take courage to stand for their faith. Do they think about the contrast and how it might be influencing their thinking? Are they being desensitized?<\/li>\n<li>Reinforce the benefits of\u00a0church. Attending church one day a week (which is what most people do) hardly competes with the daily onslaught of sexual messages. But it does provide a weekly centering and reminder of how we are to live counter culturally is this area.<\/li>\n<li>Encourage the\u00a0young adult to be in the Word . This is how we\u00a0renew our\u00a0mind. It is how we stay centered.<\/li>\n<li>Pray together whenever possible. Let them know you understand how difficult the struggle is and the importance of putting on the armor of God daily. Prayer is a powerful weapon against sexual temptation.<\/li>\n<li>Use news items and stories from friends to remind them about the physical, emotional, and spiritual fall out of sex outside of marriage. The culture is all about the physical and paints a picture of no consequences. However, people live with the physical, emotional and spiritual impacts of acting out sexually. Someone&#8217;s story is helpful,\u00a0e.g., how did they feel after a hook up, do they have images of sex with that person in their head influencing their current relationship, are they paralyzed with guilt, etc.?<\/li>\n<li>Talk about the positives of sex in\u00a0marriage. Promote the view that\u00a0marriage is worth fighting for and needs to be valued. Discuss the freedom of sexual enjoyment in the context of marriage. Encourage them that purity is possible. If they have failed, there is forgiveness and a new day.<\/li>\n<li>Discuss\u00a0the cohabitation data. Cohabitation leads to an increased chance of divorce and \u00a0a number of negative fall outs. It isn&#8217;t the positive picture portrayed in media.<\/li>\n<li>Encourage them to\u00a0to find like-minded friends who want to be accountable and want\u00a0to live what they believe. We all need others to help keep the faith. This is why a small group at church is\u00a0helpful.<\/li>\n<li>If they are caught up in sexual activity, offer help-resources\u00a0and\u00a0counseling.\u00a0But offer help with out shaming or condemning. Rather encourage, support, empathize and\u00a0offer support. With help, they can overcome.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In order to speak into the life of any\u00a0young adult, a relationship is needed in order to have the type of honest and transparent relationship needed to do life together on such a personal, but important topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most families I know do not talk to their young adults about sex\u00a0after high school. \u00a0Yet young adulthood is where sexually\u00a0vulnerability persists. Hormones are raging. \u00a0The culture is steeped with messages of do what feels good. All you have to do is turn on television or watch a movie. Sex outside of marriage is the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[914],"tags":[644,264,3591,1713,499],"class_list":["post-8496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-relationships-2","tag-family-relationships","tag-sex","tag-sexual-purity-sex-outside-of-marriage","tag-sexual-temptation","tag-young-adults"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>10 Strategies to Talk Sex With Young Adults<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/09\/10-strategies-talk-sex-young-adults.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"10 Strategies to Talk Sex With Young Adults\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most families I know do not talk to their young adults about sex\u00a0after high school. \u00a0Yet young adulthood is where sexually\u00a0vulnerability persists. Hormones are raging. \u00a0The culture is steeped with messages of do what feels good. All you have to do is turn on television or watch a movie. Sex outside of marriage is the&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/09\/10-strategies-talk-sex-young-adults.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-02T11:40:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-02T11:38:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2014\/01\/talking-300x199.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"10 Strategies to Talk Sex With Young Adults","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/09\/10-strategies-talk-sex-young-adults.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"10 Strategies to Talk Sex With Young Adults","og_description":"Most families I know do not talk to their young adults about sex\u00a0after high school. \u00a0Yet young adulthood is where sexually\u00a0vulnerability persists. Hormones are raging. \u00a0The culture is steeped with messages of do what feels good. All you have to do is turn on television or watch a movie. 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