Talking to Your Daughter About Sex
Don’t expect your wife to do all the talking. Dads have an important role to play, too. It’s true that your wife—or, if you’re a single dad, a trusted female friend of the family—should do that talking about technical issues that women are better at understanding. But we dads play an important role in teaching our daughters what they need to know about men. Here are some of the lessons that we should be communicating:

Your daughter’s body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. It is fearfully and wonderfully made. It belongs to her, and no one should touch her against her will.

Affirm her attractiveness as a woman. Challenge her to dress attractively but to be aware of any inappropriate messages she might be sending to others about sexual availability.

Explain to her that men and women desire each other physically and that is a normal phenomenon. But God calls us to save those appetites for marriage.

Any man who is not willing to honor the purity of sex is not worthy of her. Tell her that men can control their physical desires. Teach her that men respect a women who is confident in herself without needing to be provocative.

Tell her that she should never agree to anything because she is lonely or afraid of losing someone.

Tell her how much you love her mother’s mind and spirit and that sex is always an expression of a deeper love rather than pure physical desire.

Share any lessons about sex that you learned the hard way. Invite your wife to have a dialogue with you and your daughter about marital love.

By Mark R. Laaser, author of the book Talking to Your Kids About Sex.