A few years ago, God led me to step away from anti-trafficking work and focus on issues related to sexuality and the Christian Church. At the time, porn use was the main culprit I saw, and I was well aware of how destructive it could be for men, […]
It’s spring in Atlanta, and God’s handiwork is amazing to behold. I decided to adorn our back deck with some loveliness and enlisted the help of someone at a local nursery to put together a couple of potted arrangements. Our challenge was to find plants that could thrive […]
I can still see those big brown eyes. “Anna”* called me a few years ago on New Year’s Eve as I was about to leave Out of Darkness (a rescue organization for women in prostitution) to start TrueNorth. I was surprised to see her name on my phone because she’d […]
Seeing porn or experiencing something of a sexual nature during childhood is a given for all of us, and your children aren’t exempt. Because we are sexual beings, seeing a sexual image or experiencing something sexual is significant in a child’s life and the brain stores memory of it.
I can […]
After one of my Allies talks, a man shared with me that he grew up with porn sitting out in his home. It had been a struggle for a long season. Now he’s a dad walking free from the bondage to porn, but not from the bondage of shame.
Shame is a […]
Of the many things I experienced during my fifth-grade year, one event stands out. I was at a sleepover with girls from the neighborhood. It was late and the house was quiet as my friend stealthily led us into her kitchen. Our minds raced with curiosity as she retrieved a […]
This weekend Atlanta will host one of the world’s largest sporting events, the Super Bowl. Anti-trafficking groups are already on the ground identifying victims of sex trafficking and leading them to the freedom and resources they desperately need. Law enforcement personnel are working hard also.
Rescues will be made. Arrests will […]
New Year’s resolutions. Do you love them? Hate them? Wish you could be better at keeping them? For me, simply resolving to do or not do certain things doesn’t typically work. Even setting goals (including SMART ones) can only go so far in taking me to the next level. But […]
Five years ago I said goodbye to my anti-trafficking coworkers who’d become family to me. God knit our hearts together over rescues, hotline calls, and trainings filled with worship and tears. Now I run a nonprofit dedicated to sharing the good news of our sexuality and helping parents pass that […]
This past year I’ve given our Allies talk to about 1,000 parents in the Atlanta area. Their questions are very telling of the times in which we live. Here are a few of them:
There was a palpable sense of a holy ground moment in the room. Through tears my friend brought his story of sexual sin before some close brothers in Christ. Except for the moment he’d confessed to his wife, it was probably the most vulnerable he’d ever been. Though the group […]
As an adult looking back on the images, experiences, and encounters that shaped your sexuality, does it seem like something was missing? As you became more aware of your sexuality, were you left to figure it out on your own? Did the lack of God-honoring information and the abundance of […]
Today’s teens live in a hyper-sexualized world that most parents can’t fully comprehend. Even for teens who don’t watch porn or aren’t having sex, the air around them is super-charged with sexual imagery, drama, and messaging that falls far outside of God-honoring sexuality. Many teens today are internalizing a destructive, […]
If you’re a mom or a dad, have you ever considered how much information you’ll share with your kids over the eighteen or so years you have to parent them? Of the thousands of things you’ll teach them and model for them, a healthy view of sexuality is by far […]
Becoming an ally to your child in a sexualized culture is one of the most important jobs you have as a parent, and it’s not that difficult. Through our Ally Series we’ve shared some of our best information to equip you. Today and over the next few weeks we’ll introduce […]
Sexuality is powerful. In profound ways it connects the eyes, heart, mind, will, and emotions of a person. Stewarding our sexuality well is a life-long endeavor which actually begins in childhood. We live in a very sexualized culture, yet sexuality is generally a taboo topic, especially in the Christian church. We need […]
One overarching goal of our Ally Series is to lead you to a God-honoring view of sex and sexuality. Sadly, most of us internalized a culture-driven view of it. It’s impossible to give away what we don’t have, and all of us desire for our kids to embrace God’s good […]
There are so many dangers in today’s sexualized culture, and working to protect your family can be daunting. You need God’s wisdom to guide you, His grace to sustain you, and a few allies of your own to help you.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and […]
It’s one thing to send an army to distant shores to protect our homeland. It’s another thing to see the enemy on our shores, advancing down our streets. In today’s sexualized culture, protecting kids goes hand in hand with equipping them to face the enemy.
The assault on sexuality today is […]
When I was younger, getting from point A to point B wasn’t as easy as asking Siri. I never heard “rerouting” when I made a wrong turn. My navigational system consisted of tiny markings on a large piece of paper. Because my parents didn’t want me to end up in […]
Some of us never got “the talk” about sex and were left to figure it out on our own. Others of us got “the talk” but little else, leaving us embarrassed and with a lot of unspoken questions. Usually by the time “the talk” is delivered, a great deal of […]
Becoming an ally to your child in a sexualized culture will require a little soul-searching. Last week we looked at some common obstacles we will face on this journey. We all have wounds; we’ve all made mistakes; none of us feels totally equipped for this important role. We can avoid […]
Becoming an ally to your children in our sexualized culture is one of the most important endeavors you’ll undertake. In fact, I would rank it right up there with ensuring they have the best education possible, teaching them respect for every person, and introducing them to Jesus. No pressure!
An ally […]
We live in a culture that in many ways is amazingly good and at the same time can be terribly destructive. I believe that most of us would agree our culture has grown increasingly sexual. Advances in technology continue to bring more opportunities for sexual encounters and experiences that could […]
It’s not easy to grow up. As much as we may idealize childhood, in many ways childhood is something you just have to get through. Even the best families turn out adults broken and bruised by the world. God allows our trials, pain, and struggles to call us into a deeper […]
Porn finds kids. It found me at a sleepover when I was ten. My friend’s parents thought their porn images would be safe on top of the refrigerator in a manila envelope, but they were sorely wrong. Today porn finds young children at an alarming rate and often with dire […]
Someone wishing for a phone or tablet? Santa’s got a few questions first.
A friend told me she wasn’t so sure she’d be giving her middle-schooler a phone with internet just yet. She didn’t think he was ready to have the world at his fingertips. Within a generation, we have progressed […]
For most of us, something sexual like porn came into our lives unexpectedly and before we knew it, we were changed by it. For many, porn use has become a compulsive or addictive struggle. Though we can quickly delete porn history from a device, it’s impossible to erase its effects […]
Talking about sexual things can be uncomfortable. I know. As a child, I looked at the porn I found, yet couldn’t tell anyone. In college, I fit the description of a “good” Christian yet crossed many boundaries sexually. My closest friends had no idea, and I carried a lot of […]