Tonight in our family worship, we read Proverbs 5 together, aloud. I am thankful for a thoughtful wife who suggested that we read this wisdom book, but our boys weren’t feeling so much thankful as they were feeling embarrassed when we came to THAT verse.
We typically read the text and then talk about what caught our attention and ask questions about what we don’t understand. God provides tons of great discussion, all the time. Well verse 19 provided more than just great discussion. Though we have talked about sex openly with our children explaining God’s design in it, there’s still a healthy amount of blushing, and that’s not a bad thing. (Kids, I promise I won’t tell anything more personal than this!)
It’s sort of like when they see me hugging and kissing their mom. They just get all giggly and goofy. But they’re learning something really important. They’re learning about sexuality God’s way and hopefully not getting the picture all distorted from the world and Satan. This is a really big deal!
But you’ve got to admit there aren’t a lot of Bible studies done on verse 19, “Let her breasts satisfy you at all times.” Now talk about a verse a kid DOES NOT want his father to explain! This is one of them. But oh, how it needs to be explained by dads to their children. After all God did put it in the Bible for our children to read. It’s not XXX rated. It’s God’s holy word.
The first verses warn that men (and visa versa for women) who follow after the smooth talking, flirtatious, seductive woman will suffer great sorrows. But then there’s this instruction to great freedom and liberty in sexual intimacy with your own mate. God made sex, wonderfully, and He made it to be enjoyed with gladness!
Then we went on to explain the clear connection this makes to modest dress and guarding our eyes and hearts. Since God made marriage for joy unleashed in the husbands enjoyment of his wife’s body and her enjoyment of his affirmation, we are warned not to allow anything to interfere with or impede that joy. Girls or women revealing too much and boys or men indulging their desires (physically or visually) with the wrong person begins to kill the joy that God made for them and their mate.
Not everything was digested in this talk so we’ll have to talk about this many more times in the future… Kids, aren’t you glad to know that more is coming? And to all you parents out there, I want to encourage you to talk with you kids about this too. The world is the only one teaching your child about this unless you are telling them what God wants them to know.
And, by the way, there’s much more at stake here than just a good marriage or good intimacy. There’s something eternal at stake. The very gospel itself. Want to know more on that? We’ll get to that more in future posts and in the upcoming sermon series on Proverbs following Easter this spring at Koinos. I hope it will be helpful.
