I knew when I chose to review this book that it was not going to be a lighthearted easy read. This was not one of those books where you just sit down with your lemonade and relax, it tackles an important but tough subject. Love, Honor, and Virtue: Gaining or Regaining a Biblical Attitude Toward Sexuality is a book that is so very needed in our culture today. The topics are heavy and quite honestly some of them can be a little uncomfortable for a mom but they are well written and need to be addressed. While I can’t say it will be the most enjoyable book I read all summer this book by Great Waters Press may well be one of the most needed and important books that I’ve read all year and I’m thankful for the opportunity to review the book.
Love, Honor, and Virtue: Gaining or Regaining a Biblical Attitude Toward Sexuality was written not for moms like me, but for our sons. It is geared towards boys 12 and up and is very frank and direct. The book starts at the beginning and explains the mechanics of sex and childbirth. I would not give this to a boy that did not already have some understanding about sex because I think it would be overwhelming and honestly unfair to just ‘throw the book’ at a 12 year old boy. However, the Young’s recommend using this as ‘a tool’ and not as the ‘answer’.
This book is a great way to spark conversations and guide you through the process of educating and supporting your son in this area. I plan on using this book to help my son understand things and build strategies to help with temptations after we have had some initial conversations.
Love, Honor, and Virtue deals with sexuality, pornography, the biological process of childbirth from conception through delivery and tackles sexual temptation. There is even a section on male and female relationships including dating/courting and friendships. I love that particularly in the section on dating/courting they give suggestions and ideas but are careful not to give mandates where the Bible does not give mandates.
I particularly love the five point defense that they teach young men to use as they deal with temptation. It is geared towards sexual temptation but could be used with other temptations as well. First, leave or change the situation. Then they suggest prayer. Followed by reading relevant scripture and then singing to the Lord. Finally, go to your authorities (parents, counselors, etc). These five steps can help our young men as they face the many temptations present in today’s world. They expand upon each of these strategies in chapter four.
There are many references to scripture throughout the book to consistently bring us back to what the Bible says about sexuality and sexual temptation. They address computers and the ease of access to pornography, sexting, and other modern temptations that were not an issue a generation or two ago. The end of each chapter has a summary of what was discussed. This is a great review of what was covered and a great place for a parent to get ideas for discussion points.
As a mom, it can be tempting to want to hide my head in the sand and pretend that my son won’t face those temptations and issues. However, that does a severe disservice to my son. While I do not believe my son is ready for this material just yet (he is on the youngest end of the recommended ages), I intend to use this book with him to help facilitate conversations about these topics. Love, Honor, and Virtue: Gaining or Regaining a Biblical Attitude Toward Sexuality is an open and frank book discussing the sexual temptations that many young men face in today’s world. If you are parenting younger children, checkout my review No Longer Little (Book Review) about parenting tweens. Great Waters Press has a variety of other books and materials to help you on this parenting journey.
Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure
When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.
This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.
The Schoolin' Swag Blog 