Let me tell you a secret… When I was young, I had no idea what "abstinence" really meant. No one ever talked to me about it in terms that I could understand and no one told me about its importance in preparing myself for my future family. I was young and naive, and based my perception of sex and love on what I saw in the media -- on TV, movies and books.
As a teenager, I wanted to "fit in" and "be cool" like my friends in school, and so I gave in to peer pressure -- mostly of the negative sort. I won’t go into detail here (that’s for my personal blog I think) but let’s just say that I went through my teen years not really knowing what true love was, and not knowing the value of my sexuality in God’s eyes. I knew that abstinence was important but I didn’t really know why.
This is why I am all for teaching the youth about responsible sexuality and abstinence, in particular. Now that I am a parent, I know how important it is to guard our children’s purity. I must admit that I was a virgin when I got married, and I thank God He blessed me with a man who valued me. However, I did go through "dark times" as a young single woman, and I only pray that my kids will never travel the same path. (Of course, if they did, I would still love them unconditionally, just like my parents loved and still love me.)
This is why I fully support Heartbeat -- Pregnancy Support Services of Asia (HB PSSA) and their third regional conference and training, with the theme, "Heart to Heart," inspired by Blessed Mother Teresa’s saying, "Jesus in my heart reaching out to your heart." The event will take place on January 31 to February 1, 2014 at St. Michael’s Retreat House, Antipolo City, Metro Manila, Philippines. The keynote speaker, Ms. Catherine Wood, is the founder and president of Relationships Under Construction. Here’s a bit of info about it:
"Relationships Under Construction is a private, non-profit organization is designed to come alongside students, parents, educators and their communities to empower the young people to make healthy decisions based upon medically accurate information and therefore maintain the possibility of awesome opportunities for their lives. It provides one of the few successful approaches to decrease teen sexual activity and therefore decrease teen pregnancy, teen abortions, STDs and emotional devastation and upheaval."
The organizers of the conference cite the following expected benefits:
1. At the end of the conference and training, it is expected that the participants will have a clear knowledge of abstinence education, teen sexuality, the L.O.V.E. approach, H.E.A.R.T. approach and know how to establish an abstinence education program and a pregnancy crisis center in their respective areas/countries.
2. All participants who complete the training will receive a certification from Relationship Under Construction for the modules conducted by Ms. Catherine Wood.
3. The event will provide opportunities for networking among individuals and groups involved in ministries for the young (youth and young adult/single), pregnancy crises support services centers, family and life ministries.
If you or anyone you know is working with young people, especially in schools and parishes, or if you’re a parent like me and want to know more about teaching abstinence to your kids, this is an event worth investing in. For more information and details on how to register, log on to the Heartbeat PSSA website at http://heartbeatasia.com. You can also send me an email at tina@trulyrichmom.com and I’ll connect you to the organizers.
Don’t miss this chance to learn how to form our youth and connect to them, heart to heart. As Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "We cannot always build the future of our youth, but we can build our youth for the future."