A few days ago, I mentioned that I wanted to teach our children appropriate physical contact between boys and girls. I’ve been praying for wisdom in this area. Am I being too sensitive? Am I worrying too much? Does God’s Word have anything that will guide me as I teach my young children to be pure?
On a whim, I did an internet search on teaching purity to children. Two of the books I saw mentioned were ones I’ve heard of before but not picked up: The Princess and the Kiss or the guy equivalent The Squire and the Scroll. Maybe I will someday. I looked them up recently to see if they would be good to add to our library. When I read the summaries, particularly with a son in mind (since he’s my oldest. I’ll be thinking about my daughters soon enough), I started feeling dissatisfied with this approach (although I’m certain these books have been a blessing and useful tool for teaching purity).
It’s not that they’re saying anything unbiblical, as far as I can tell. It’s just that King Solomon compiled a whole book in part designed to help young people be pure. Why not start there? I was convicted that I was looking for a book, someone’s words, maybe a nice bulleted list or step by step instructions somewhere, without first considering what the Bible had to say. Have you ever done this?
So this afternoon I opened Proverbs while thinking about purity and my children. I was struck that I’m worried about a fruit (kids touching) without even thinking about the roots (in a sense wisdom). My children need to learn to love wisdom. That was Solomon’s emphasis quite a bit before he began talking about the “strange woman” (the immoral woman in the Bible).
I’m not giving up on the topic, but I’m thinking that this is where I’m going to start my searching for wisdom on this topic.
There are some other purity places in the Bible, but I don’t want to get that specific yet! I might not bring up this topic for awhile, but I’ll be reading God’s Word and thinking and praying.
Leave a Reply