Facing the Challenge

THE assault on sexual morality starts early in life with the availability of television, books, magazines, movies, and music that feature sex. Youths are pushed into adult sexual behavior patterns without the safeguard of emotional stability. Some parents even add to the sexual pressure by allowing dating at a young age. Peer pressure encourages dating, and many youths who have a steady boyfriend or girlfriend soon let their guard down and become sexually active. “How common it is . . . for a young teenage girl who feels unloved by her parents . . . to fall into a sexual embrace with her boyfriend in the mistaken belief it will bring love and intimacy,” observed Luther Baker, a professor of family studies.

Youths tend to live their adolescent years as their last fling in life instead of as a preparation for life. “Enamored with their new capacity and convinced by peers that sexual prowess is the way to be a man, many youths become sexual predators” in their adolescence, said Professor Baker. Some 30 years ago, historian Arnold Toynbee bemoaned this treachery perpetrated on our youth, as he believed history has shown that part of the modern West’s creative energy has sprung from the ability to postpone adolescents’ ‘sexual awakening’ to let them concentrate on the acquisition of knowledge.

Parents Who Are a Positive Influence

Parents who do not allow adolescents to date for recreation show genuine concern for the future health and happiness of their children. By having high moral standards and maintaining good communication, they can be influential in the lives of their children. Research into the sexual behavior of youths indicates that “this influence may lead the children to delay sexual activity,” according to the Journal of Marriage and the Family.

Parents who instill a strong sense of self-discipline and responsibility in their children get the best results. “When adolescents and their parents hold values that stress responsibility, the adolescents’ chances of experiencing an out-of-wedlock childbirth are significantly reduced,” testifies one study. This entails a sensitive involvement in children’s activities—monitoring their homework; knowing their whereabouts and their associates; setting realistic educational goals; and sharing spiritual values. Children growing up with this intimate parental interaction will feel better about themselves and will feel comfortable with their sexuality.

The best advice for both parents and children is the wisdom found in the Bible. Parents in Israel were commanded to teach proper moral values to their children. Jehovah asked them: “What great nation is there that has righteous regulations and judicial decisions like all this law that I am putting before you today?” It was these “righteous regulations” that they were to teach their children in the warmth and intimacy of the family setting. “You must inculcate them in your son and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.” Children were admonished: “Observe . . . the commandment of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother.” Such warm, intimate communication and instruction from both father and mother are the building blocks of a balanced attitude toward life and sexuality, which “will stand guard over” a youth throughout his life.—Deuteronomy 4:8; 6:7; Proverbs 6:20, 22.

Youths, why ruin your future by giving in to sexual impulses? The teen years are about seven in number. They should be used to grow mentally, emotionally, and spiritually and to develop a balanced attitude about sexuality, in preparation for the next 50 or 60 years of life. Parents, take your God-given responsibility seriously, and safeguard your children from the vexation of heart brought on by sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies. (Ecclesiastes 11:10) Let your children see in your daily lives how love and consideration for others builds lasting relationships.

Successfully Facing the Challenge

Do not allow the contemporary obsession with sex to distort your view of life and spoil your opportunity for a full and happy future. Meditate on the numerous examples of human relationships in the Bible. Be assured that life and love remain vibrant and meaningful well after the teen years. When this reality is thoughtfully addressed in harmony with the divine will for Christian men and women, then the foundation is laid for an intimate and lasting union of two people in love.

As you examine Bible couples such as Jacob and Rachel, Boaz and Ruth, and the shepherd boy and the Shulammite maiden, you will see an element of sexual attraction in their relationships. However, as you carefully read Genesis chapters 28 and 29, the book of Ruth, and The Song of Solomon, you will notice that there are other important elements that enrich such relationships.a

Accept Jehovah’s Provisions for Life

Jehovah, the Creator of the human race, understands human sexuality and the impulses involved. Lovingly, he has created us in his image, not with “promiscuous genes,” but with the capability to control our emotions in harmony with the divine will. “This is what God wills, . . . that you abstain from fornication; that each one of you should know how to get possession of his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in covetous sexual appetite such as also those nations have which do not know God; that no one go to the point of harming and encroach upon the rights of his brother in this matter.”—1 Thessalonians 4:3-6.

This is demonstrated by Jehovah’s Witnesses throughout the world. They respect God’s high standards for Christian men and women. Older men are looked upon as fathers, “younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters with all chasteness.” (1 Timothy 5:1, 2) What a wholesome environment for young men and women to enjoy as they reach their full potential, unencumbered by pressures to date and marry prematurely or by sexually transmitted diseases! The active Christian family, strengthened by the Christian congregation, is a safe haven in a sex-mad world.

Applying Bible principles in their lives, Christian youths are free from a compulsion for sex and find joy in paying attention to the admonition given in God’s Word: “Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart do you good in the days of your young manhood, and walk in the ways of your heart and in the things seen by your eyes. But know that on account of all these the true God will bring you into judgment. So remove vexation from your heart, and ward off calamity from your flesh; for youth and the prime of life are vanity.”—Ecclesiastes 11:9, 10.

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Do not allow an obsession with sex to spoil your opportunity for a full and happy future

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Youths involved in family activities are less likely to seek sexual intimacy