Equippers Newsletter -- Sex; Priorities; The Mouth

Two items below this entry is my teaching on your kids and sexuality from last Sunday.
Three important links on sex and your kids:


• Sex talk from the top: http://www.focusonthefamily.com/lifechallenges/love_and_sex/purity/what_your_teens_need_to_know_about_sex.aspx
• WHO is controlling what your children hear? http://www.crosswalk.com/parenting/11607470/
• We better ramp up our awareness! http://www.cbn.com/family/parenting/elliott_TechnicalVirgin.aspx
• Identity is such a vital issue in sexuality. I love Jonny Diaz’ ‘More Beautiful You.’ Here’s the video (we’ll share it in Equippers of Middle Schoolers this Sunday, too). Share it as a family. Talk to your children (NOT just the girls) about the message.
http://www.jonnydiaz.com/?page_id=173

I interviewed Jonny and his mom, Gwen, week before last for my column in Sports Spectrum. Gwen and Ed Diaz, of Lakeland, Fla., have raised four young men who are walking with and service Christ, two very publicly (Jonny, and Braves outfielder Matt). It didn’t come without sacrifice. While Dad led a vital ministry and parented, Gwen gave up some things to focus on her boys. It begs the question of whether we are all prioritizing time properly.

Gwen is Ivy League-educated, a nurse, and gifted in administration, with expertise in a variety of medical, social and ministry realms. When the boys were young she considered how to spend her time.

“I actually made up a grid,” she told me. “I put God, my husbands and my sons on the left. At the top I put a plus sign, a minus and an neutral. I graded everything that came into my life, and if it was negative for any of the three, I didn’t do it.”

We don’t all have that choice – but we might have more choices than we think. Priorities are always worth reconsidering.

• Alcohol adds are targeting YOUR teen: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,542561,00.html
• ‘The Mouth’ (all of ours) sets off more issues than almost anything in our home. Here’s a verse to gently share with your family. Let the Holy Spirit do the convicting! (I’m bad about trying to handle that myself, a-hem). “Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God, for God is in heaven, and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few . . . a fools voice is known by his many words.” – Ecclesiastes 5:2-3b
o “Do not be rash with your mouth” -- think first! Think with Christ’s mind!
o “let not your heart utter” – if your heart is right, it won’t come out of your mouth!
o ”for God is in heaven & you are on earth” – His position considered vs. yours should put His priorities and words 1st
o “a fool’s voice . . . “ -- Bottom line: fools talk too much