Sacred vs. Secret

SEX.
One three letter word. One powerful word. What do you think and feel when you read that word? A lot of times that word is avoided, almost walked around because people have a hard time discussing sexual intimacy. I am sure some of the thoughts and feelings that come to mind when I say the word sex are things like dirty, gross, uncomfortable, painful, heartbreak, funny, and the list could go on and on. Why is this the case? Why is this something that we shy away from talking about?
TEMPLE.
One six letter word. One powerful word. What do you think and feel when you read this word? I am positive the list isn’t the same from the one above. We feel peace, comfort, strength, and love when we talk about the temple. This list could continue to go on and on as well. Why is this the case? Isn’t the principle the same?
Both things are both sacred and held in the highest degree to our Father in Heaven. We don’t shy away about conversations of the temple but we do when it comes to sexual intimacy. We have all sat throw a class either in health or for whatever other reason talking about our bodies, and just felt uncomfortable. We have the mindset going in that it will just be awkward. And yet if we go to Sunday school, and sit through a lesson conversing the temple we leave spiritually uplifted. God doesn’t want us to be ashamed of who we are and our sexual nature, just like he doesn’t want us to be ashamed to say that we are endowed members of the church.
So how do we change this? Do we go around proclaiming anything and everything about sexual intercourse? Do we do that with the covenants we make in the temple? No, because those things are sacred, there are things that we should keep to ourselves. But we can become more comfortable about the idea that sexual intimacy is just a normal part of life, but is approved in the sight of God within the bonds of marriage of a man and woman.
I am not saying that sex should come up in every conversation we have with everyone, but we should be able to converse about it with those that are close to us and in situations where we are learning or teaching. As parents this is crucial. Some advice I was given is to role play teaching sexual intimacy to my children with my husband. Some might say, that would be awkward. If that is awkward for you with your spouse, how do you expect to have that conversation with your children?
This is something that has come up in conversations with a friend of mine. He told me that he was never given “the talk” that he could think of. His older siblings helped in some ways, but he was left to his own devices to figure out his own body. This could have easily led him down the wrong path of information from the internet and lead to problems in pornography. Luckily, that wasn’t the case for him, but he is one of the lucky few.
I am on the opposite side of that spectrum. Even before I reach the age of puberty I was told about the changes my body will have, and the warnings to be sexually pure. I can say I had it better off than my friend because I was aware of what was going on with me. This led me to be able to stand up for myself and know that I wanted to keep myself pure for my marriage.
So talking about the importance of sexual intimacy shouldn’t be a topic we should avoid. It also isn’t something that we talk about openly, everything on the table. Sex is like the temple, sacred and not secret. We should hold them both of them in the highest regard, because our Father in Heaven does.