Spring, 2023 Update continued…
In a moment, we will discuss differences between the second third editions, but first let’s emphasize what’s the same: our goal remains to empower and equip you, the parent, to be an informed, effective, trusted, and loving source of biblically faithful and godly instruction in the area of sexuality for your children. The parent’s guide book is a comprehensive resource for parents. The two books for children under eight years old are meant to be read with and to your children as a way of starting and sustaining the conversations that lay the groundwork for all that follows. What’s the Big Deal is meant to be read together with your child between the ages of 8 and 12, and there are discussion questions at the end of each chapter to take you further in conversation. Finally, Facing the Facts is meant to be read by your child, but we strongly encourage that you read it with them and discuss each and every chapter to maximize the impact and build your relationship with your child.
So what’s different?
First, we attempted to deal biblically and lovingly with the profound changes occurring in Western culture, whether it be the legalization of gay marriage and the broad and ever-growing acceptance of alternate sexual orientations, the breathtaking change in the understanding of gender and sex from a binary of male and female to the concept of gender fluidity and the profound impact of transgender movement, the growing coarseness of popular culture, and the extraordinary availability and acceptance of pornography and erotica more broadly. These, together with the general spread of sexual permissiveness (and the accompanying rise in sexual transmitted infections and the breakdown of marriage in so many parts of contemporary culture), demanded that the books be brought up to date.
We dealt with these matters directly in age-appropriate ways. As a result, while the two books for children under eight changed the least, What’s the Big Deal is now targeted at a broader age range depending on the maturity of your child (to be used between 8 and 12, rather than 8 and 11), and is slightly longer. Facing the Facts is also targeted at a broader age range, again depending on maturity and other circumstances faced by your child (12-16); it also got substantially longer, but we cut the material into shorter, more readable chapters, going from 9 to 19 chapters. How and When to Tell your Kids about Sex got slightly longer, but was substantially updated. We developed the biblical, theological, and ethical arguments more thoroughly, and believe the book is stronger than ever. At the encouragement of our publishers, we sought to document our facts and arguments with great care, resulting in about three times more footnotes than in the prior edition!
We are delighted at the release of these books, and pray that they will serve Christian parents and your children well for years to come, that the church will be strengthened, and that God will be glorified!