'Teaching True Love to a Sex-at-13 Generation' - Eric & Leslie Ludy

I think kids will respond eagerly to a message of strength and empowerment, a message built around “do” rather than “don’t.” I know I do. Parents and lovers of teens, don’t miss this book. While some sections may sound a tiny bit naïve, the Ludys do have a message of substance for a generation who longs for it.

It’s all about equipping. That’s the important message of “Teaching True Love to a Sex-at-13 Generation,” by youth workers Eric & Leslie Ludy. Active with young people for the past ten years, they bring an “insider’s perspective” to stir parents who think that because their child is active in youth group they’re not at risk. They are. Wake up and smell the coffee.

Our young teenagers are becoming sexually active at an alarming rate with little understanding of the costs to their soul, their psyche or their futures. The Ludys believe that the only answer to this problem is the intentional, astute intervention of caring parents. The traditional Christian approach of “just say no” fails our teens miserably by providing no motivation and no alternative. “Unless the abstinence message is part of a bigger vision- a vision of an amazing marriage, a glorious picture of happily-ever-after romance that stands the test of time- then it is nothing but a Band-Aid covering up a deadly cancerous growth.” Our kids don’t necessarily believe there is anything better to wait for. Wise parents will show them how to believe there is.

A very appealing part of the Ludy’s message is its focus on empowerment. They don’t want teens to be innocent in the sense of naïve or ignorance. Rather, they promote an intelligent and deliberate purity that is “the flexing of a moral muscle within a human soul, a moment-by-moment choice to walk a path of integrity amid a world polluted with sin.”