Orange Juice and Brushing Teeth-Teaching Youth about the Joy of Sex

Beginning a marriage has its challenges for many different reasons.  I think anyone who has gone through the newlywed phase would agree with that.  As many young adults in the LDS faith who have kept the standards they have been taught, one of the challenges is often that of sex and intimacy.  I think some of our youth having been taught about being morally "clean" consider the alternative “dirty”.  Why do some kids turn their heads and say, “gross!” when they see their parents kissing?  We need to teach our youth that sex is great!  It just needs to be at the right time with the right person.  On February 18, 2018 Hank Smith, a Professor of Religion at BYU and motivational speaker tweeted, “Never teach teens that sexual feelings, thoughts, and desires are evil or “from the devil.”  Marriage and sex are like drinking orange juice and brushing your teeth- they are both awesome- just try to get them in the right order.” If we as parents teach our kids just this, that we love having sex but that it is very best within marriage, hopefully young adults won’t have a skewed vision of what sex is and isn’t.  In an article titled Fulfilling the Sexual Stewardship in Marriage by Sean E. Brotherson, it states, “For those who may struggle with feelings or thoughts that the expression of sexual desires is unwholesome or shameful, notice how clearly President Lee teaches that such impulses are intended by God as a “holy impulse for a holy purpose,” indeed a divine purpose in marriage. That divine purpose, I believe, is to serve as a specific and powerful symbol of reunifying commitment and love between a husband and wife.” 

I know as a young bride 19 years ago on the eve of my wedding it was so hard to comprehend why something that had been so forbidden, mysterious, and somewhat scary sounding was going to be completely OK in a matter of hours.  I think my anticipation would have been excitement rather than anxiety, if I had been taught that it was a wonderfully fulling part of my life that would help my future husband and I grow closer as a couple for many years to come, rather than a mysterious and taboo experience.