This week’s blog post is by Brad Wright, Compass Rose’s campus chaplain. To learn more about Brad, click here.

First, let’s be clear. Sex is good! Sex was created by God!

But, God has a specific plan for sex. And it’s that plan teens and adults struggle to accept on a daily basis.

Going back to the beginning, we know that God created us and designed every part of us, including our sexuality. Satan, the great deceiver, since the beginning of time has tried to distort and abuse sexuality. Check out Genesis 3 and the account of original sin. Satan comes to Eve with two lies that he still uses today.

The first lie is, “Did God really say …?” And the second lie is, “God’s holding out on you. He doesn’t have your best interest in mind.”

These lies are designed to make us question God’s plan, goodness and love for us. It makes it difficult for young people to find a healthy biblical balance with love and sex.

Here are a few tips to help find that balance in life.

Make sure you fill your mind with healthy material.
If you allow your teens to watch or listen to any kind of music/TV, you’d better be willing to talk with your teens about the right and wrong messages entertainment is sending. I love TV and music, and I passed that love down to my girls. I know they watch or listen to some negative messages about sexuality. So, I make sure to ask them about it and how it matches up with their personal beliefs and God’s plan for their life. I try to fill them with as many good options as the bad or mixed messages they receive on a daily basis. This is hard work, but worth it in the end.

Understand who God created you to be.
Challenge your teens to know who they are – not who everyone else wants them to be. I tell teens all the time, “If doing the right thing was easy, more people would be doing it.” Don’t just follow the crowd because everyone else is doing it (sex). Be original! God created us with a brain – teens need to know they can use it to make wise choices. God is calling people, “to come out from among them and be Holy…” (Isaiah 1:16-17).

Know you are not alone.
You are not the only teen to wait until marriage to have sex. Plenty of teens are “in love” but wait to have sex. The plans God put into place at the beginning of creation are still practical today.

Experience grace.
There is hope if you have been “biting the bait” of sex. God wants to bring you back to Him, and for you to experience His never-ending grace for your life. God wants you to repent and start new with a new life (2 Corinthians 5:17).

To learn more ways to help your teen strike a balance between her feelings of sexuality, and her responsibilities to God’s moral plan for her life, contact Compass Rose Academy today.