I’m realizing these days just how brainwashed by the culture at large we can become. Although in many ways I have practiced the renewing of my mind by the Word of God (Romans 12:1), I’ve been challenged recently to do that even more. To give up ideas that are practically force-fed us by the culture we grow up in, and embrace thoughts that may run counter-culture, but line up with Scripture.

Both in China and “back home” in Canada, I often run into women who say they envy me that I “can stay home with my children.” They go on to tell me how they simply couldn’t afford to do the same. Others tell me they admire my patience. They smile and say they wouldn’t possibly have the patience to do what I do–as though they could never aspire to the sort of sainthood it must take to stay at home and school my children. I bite my tongue.

I will tell you now what I’ve wished I could tell them. Staying at home with my children was never about what we could afford or about an overabundance of resources or patience. Certainly there are days when my patience has been spread thin, when my voice is hoarse at the end of the day from trying to talk over three noisy children on the chance something I say might penetrate some way somehow. There are days–hold onto your seat–when I’ve failed.

And as far as being able to afford it, we have made what some would call sacrifices. We made the decision that I would stay at home when my husband’s salary hovered somewhere close to $20,000 annually. He worked for a charitable organization, and we lived in one of the most expensive cities in Canada.

We do not own our own home. We currently don’t even have a car–we use public transit all over our city here in China.

But we have never been without. We have always had more than enough food on the table, friends close at hand, love, laughter, understanding, grace. God has always provided.

We have made what some would call sacrifices. We could have taken the safe path, followed the road most traveled, done what we could “afford,” and not spent these years instilling values in our children, making memories and helping to forge character, but in the end, in our books, that was the greater sacrifice. One we weren’t willing to make.

Well, it was inevitable, and it’s happened. Not necessarily on purpose, but by virtue of the fact that we had a somewhat nomadic lifestyle for a while, homeschooling, and the fact that our kids really don’t watch much TV (videos, yes, but TV hardly any at all), we are likely later than most with “the talk.” We have introduced correct terminology for body parts and matter-of-fact discussions about childbirth (two of our children were born at home) previously.

Ironically, the topic was raised during morning devotional time. Reading about controlling our anger, we discussed Cain and Abel. The New Living Translation we use reads like this in Genesis 4:1:

Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, “With the Lord’s help, I have produced a man!”

Before we read any further, Pumpkin and Sweetpea said, “What does THAT mean?”

This was the last topic I expected to be raised during Bible study time!

But since it was, I asked them to wait until the next day and I would explain. Using as our foundation the concept that sex is a gift from God for marriage, I introduced four key concepts:

1. God created sex – Genesis 2:18-25
2. God sees sex as “very good” – Genesis 1:26,31
3. The union between man and wife makes them one – Matthew 19:4-6
4. A husband and a wife should reserve sex for their marriage alone – Exodus 20:14

And then, of course, it was necessary to explain the physical aspects. We looked at a diagram of flowers and talked about seeds and fertilization and how that was a principle established by God and that every living thing needs these two parts to join together in order to reproduce.

Our kids know enough about animal reproduction to have some excellent questions. For the rest of our talk, I borrowed from principles from Mary Flo Ridley’s “Simple Truths” CD (downloadable from iTunes) or available at Amazon. Everything was age appropriate, and explained with correct terminology. There were a few giggles and one “blech!” but then they started talking about something else.

Much less painful than I thought it might be. I highly recommend the two resources I drew from to arm myself for this important discussion:

1. Simple Truths – by Mary Flo Ridley
2. Teaching Your Children Healthy Sexuality – by Jim Burns