Comments on: The Birds and the Bees: “Our Sacred Secret”

By: Ray

Ray — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:22:06 +0000

My parents-in-law gave us an old . . . interesting book just before we were married. “At this stage of the game . . .” We still laugh about it over 20 years later.

I loved this, Ardis, for the same reasons already mentioned.

By: Steve C.

Steve C. — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:35:55 +0000

Sister C. has already had the “talk” with our daughter. Steve C. get the duty of having the “talk” with our son here in a year or so. (Dreading it already!)

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:11:32 +0000

Steve and Bro. Jones, thanks. That — and the point that every mother likes to tell her own children, so let’s keep this between us — is what I liked about this. You can use whatever words seem suitable for the times, but the essential is the point you both make.

I’ll pretend not to notice how Steve is passing the buck to Sister C!

By: Steve C.

Steve C. — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:04:22 +0000

Quaintness aside, I think this advise it timeless. I also like how it says the “mother” should teach this.

By: Bro. Jones

Bro. Jones — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:45:50 +0000

This is my favorite part: “The truth is the child’s inheritance: he came here with God-given craving for it, and he had better be told life’s origin truthfully by his mother who knows something of it, and who has the privilege of being inspired by God, than to be told shocking or distorted things by one who knows neither the truth nor the child.” It’s more than positive: it locates the origin of very important, very intimate issues as divine. Sure, the rest of the article is firmly in the “quaint” category, but that powerful sentence is pretty cool.

By: Steve C.

Steve C. — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:25:41 +0000

There is a certain quaintness about this. Nevertheless, there are certain aspects that I think are important; namely the comments, “The danger lies not in telling, but in withholding, this important truth from him,” and “[H]e had better be told life’s origin truthfully by his mother who knows something of it, and who has the privilege of being inspired by God, than to be told shocking or distorted things by one who knows neither the truth nor the child.”

Ardis, I don’t know of any discussions of this in young men’s Church publications, but there is always the BK Packer “From Boy to Man” pamphlet that my dad made my brothers and I read. Did anyone else have to read it too?