It Was Time for ‘The Talk’ - FamilyLife Today® with Dave and Ann Wilson

Please tell me that I’m not the only one who broke out in a cold sweat when thinking about having "The Talk" with my children. Some may say that we should have done it earlier, but because our oldest is 11 and we are homeschooling, we felt we had a little bit of a buffer.

But a few things recently came up in conversations with our daughter that made us realize that we needed to talk to her soon. We wanted to be sure that she heard the right things from us—and not bits and pieces from others. Truth be told, I was scared, and I wanted to wait as long as possible and protect the innocence that still exists in our kids. What would I say? What would she ask? Gulp.

Over a recent weekend, my daughter, Laurianna, and I made a special overnight date together, reserved a room in a nice hotel for cheap, and had a few special treats for us to just have girl time together—and have fun!

The Passport2Purity® weekend

Driving to the hotel, my stomach was doing flip-flops, and my brain was going a million miles a second thinking of answers to questions that Laurianna might have (but never did). I was basically worrying and stressing myself out. My husband, Rick, and I had been praying about the weekend; one would think that I would have relaxed a bit.

One of the best things that we did was order Passport2Purity from FamilyLife®. If you are stressed about talking with your kids, this resource leads you through it. The Passport2Purity weekend retreat kit is hands-down a fabulous resource for parents to use and covers so much more than just the basics.

During the weekend, Laurianna and I talked about friendships, peer pressure, sex, setting boundaries, keeping pure, and dating. The best part? Although many of these topics aren’t an issue yet (she’s only 11), this weekend gave us the opportunity to talk about things before they become issues and to lay some guidelines in place.

The entire weekend was laid out for us through the parent’s manual that comes in the kit. We listened to audio teachings from the Raineys, pausing the CDs occasionally to answer questions together and have more heart-to-heart conversations. Another thing that I love about the kit is that it includes Scripture memory songs to go along with the teachings. We’ve loaded the songs onto Laurianna’s iPod just for her to listen to and memorize.

Laurianna also had a journal (included in the kit) for her to take notes. Prior to the weekend, Rick and I each took time to write her a letter that she read before our weekend away. My hubby’s letter to her made me cry. A lot.

A special gift

Laurianna and I really had an amazing time together laughing, sharing, and learning more about each other. On Saturday afternoon we each had a pedicure to celebrate, and then we went shopping together at a local antique mall for a special gift to remember our weekend—a delicate teacup. If Laurianna ever wants to talk to me about anything, she can pull out her teacup and the two of us will sit down together to talk. The teacup also represents how delicate her purity is and how gently we need to care for it. She was thrilled to have a special cup of her own (it took us nearly an hour to find the perfect one).

I’m excited about taking my younger daughter, McKenna, on a Passport2 Purity weekend in a little over a year. And Rick will have Passport2 Purity weekends with our boys in the years to come.

Thinking of our weekend makes me smile and feel so thankful for the resources that are available to us!

Author’s Note: This article was in no way solicited by FamilyLife. It was originally written as a post on my website, Homeschool Creations, as simply an expression of thankfulness from one mom and dad for a fabulous resource for families to use.