Teaching Age-Appropriate Sexuality

"Progressive developmental facts over time"

"This is a normal feeling. You're going to learn how to experience it without fear and without avoidance."

https://youtu.be/n-NReF1TeDg

Recovering from the Trap of Pornography

I love that Dallin H. Oaks described levels of involvement in pornography in the Oct 2015 Ensign article, "Recovering from the Trap of Pornography".  They are important distinctions.

1. Inadvertent Exposure
2. Occasional Use
3. Intensive Use
4. Compulsive Use (Addiction)

There is power in labeling ourselves. If you find yourself anywhere in these levels of involvement, ask for help.

The Meaning of Repentance

We studied the talk of President Nelson from Apr 2019 given to the Priesthood today in church. "We Can Do Better and Be Better" Russell M. Nelson. This phrase stood out to me "Too many people consider repentance as punishment—something to be avoided except in the most serious circumstances."

I looked up "repentance as punishment" and I found "The Meaning of Repentance" Ensign Aug 1988 by Theodore M. Burton.

It shares the same definition that President Nelson shared

The word for repentance in the Greek New Testament is metanoeo. The prefix meta- means “change.” The suffix -noeo is related to Greek words that mean “mind,” “knowledge,” “spirit,” and “breath.”
Thus, when Jesus asks you and me to “repent,” He is inviting us to change our mind, our knowledge, our spirit—even the way we breathe.

Elder Burton also includes

Confusion came, however, when the New Testament was translated from Greek into Latin. Here an unfortunate choice was made in translation; the Greek word metaneoeo was translated into the Latin word poenitere. The Latin root poen in that word is the same root found in our English words punish, penance, penitent, and repentance. The beautiful meaning of the Hebrew and Greek words was thus changed in Latin to a meaning that involved hurting, punishing, whipping, cutting, mutilating, disfiguring, starving, or even torturing! It is no small wonder, then, that people have come to fear and dread the word repentance, which they understand to mean repeated or unending punishment. 

The meaning of repentance is not that people be punished, but rather that they change their lives so that God can help them escape eternal punishment and enter into his rest with joy and rejoicing. If we have this understanding, our anxiety and fears will be relieved. Repentance will become a welcome and treasured word in our religious vocabulary.

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The Price of Laziness and Rebellion

"I had known that when my parents told me to wear shoes, they did not mean flip-flops; I was old enough to know that flip-flops did not provide the same protection as a pair of shoes. But that morning in the desert, I disregarded what I knew to be right. I ignored what my parents had repeatedly taught me. I had been both lazy and a little rebellious, and I paid a price for it."
(“Come unto Me with Full Purpose of Heart, and I Shall Heal You”,
Patrick Kearon, GC Oct 2010, emphasis added)


https://youtu.be/XZCQHPGT78o

Children Chat Deposit

I listened to an ad on the Mormon Talk Radio. It said that when we chat with our children we make deposits in our bank account of trust with them. They can draw on that when they need to. They will trust us.