Mormon Channel released a video today as a part of their series "Gospel Solutions for Families" on how to talk to children about pornography. In the video, Sister Linda S. Reeves, second counselor in Relief Society general presidency, and Angie Cella, a marriage and family therapist who focuses on sex addiction and therapy, along with host Amy Iverson, talk about faith-based approaches to this difficult topic.
As the beginning of their discussion, Iverson points out that Sister Reeves focused on protecting families against pornography and how to “manage our passions” in a recent general conference talk. Sister Reeves shares that it is important to know these feelings are God-given.
“It makes all the difference in the world . . . for us to know that Heavenly Father has given us these feelings,” Sister Reeves says. “They’re the feelings that cause us to want us to get married and to want to have that intimate relationship that we can with a spouse.”
They also point out that it is critical to remember that our children are good and that we should not shame our children.
“Pornography is bad and pornography is the enemy . . . We’ve got to keep that in mind. Our kids are not the enemy,” Cella says. “What we need to do is help steer them away from that and towards us, so that we can be the ones answering those questions and help them know they are really good kids, just having normal curiosity come up and we’re going to support them through that.”
Sister Reeves also reminds us that Heavenly Father loves all of us no matter how far we may have gone astray.
“It is true, we are all children of our Heavenly Father, even those who have made terrible mistakes are good people and beloved of our Heavenly Father," Sister Reeves says. "And thankfully, He’s provided our Savior and His Atonement for us that we can be clean and good again.”