Sex - Part 2

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript  

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The Deadly Traps of Adolescence 

Day 4 of 10

Guest:                        Dennis and Barbara Rainey

From the series:       Sex

Bob:                Parents often wonder – when should we have "the talk" with out children?  Dennis Rainey says it shouldn't just be "the talk," it ought to be "the talks."

Dennis:          I've really found that there are different segments that we go through with our children, whether boys or girls, that I've certainly taken our boys through.  First of all, it's just the ABCs of sex – it's the birds and the bees, it's the biological facts about sex, and I honestly believe today that has to be in place by age 10.  If you've not had that conversation with your child, the world is having it.

Bob:                This is FamilyLife Today for Thursday, July 12th.  Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine.  We'll talk today about the big talk parents need to have with their children – what, when, and how?

                        And welcome to FamilyLife Today, thanks for joining us on the Thursday edition.  We have been wandering through a field full of traps this week on the program because, as parents, we need to visit and learn where the traps are so that we can be about our job of leading our children through a field of traps that they're going to face as adolescents.

Dennis:          Yeah, I thought you were going to the field of dreams there – you know, adolescence is no field of dreams – it's a picture, I believe, of a parent walking through this trap-infested field with a teenager having a blindfold on and being barefoot, scooting along very closely behind the parent with his hands on the parent's shoulder, and the parent guiding him around all these traps because they're dangerous.

                        Job, chapter 18, describes the scene, I think, beautifully – verse 8 – "His feet thrust down into a net, and he wanders into its mesh.  A trap seizes hold by the heel; a snare holds him fast; a noose is hidden for him on the ground; a trap lies in his path."  Now, listen to this summary –  "Terrors startle him on every side and dog his every step.  Calamity is hungry for him, disaster is ready for him when he falls."  

                        That's the picture of a teenager moving from childhood through those perilous adolescent years to adulthood and maturity, and it's our responsibility, as parents, to go ahead of our children and guide them through this process.

Bob:                Barbara, there are too many 10-year-olds, 12-year-olds, 15-year-olds, and 18-year-olds out wandering in that field with the blindfold on and nobody leading them at all.

Barbara:         Except the culture.

Bob:                Yes.

Barbara:         And the culture is doing a good job of it, and they're out there alone, or they're out there with a bunch of their buddies, a bunch of their friends, and they're wandering around, just looking for direction, for anybody to tell them what to do, and that's why they get sucked into these traps all the time.

Bob:                Where are Mom an