We are wrapping up our series on sex and relationships this week. The series was called The Line. Over the past 3 weeks we've been talking about the different aspects of that topic. So today, I'm writing a short summary of each of the talks so that you can have a good idea of what we covered. So check out all four of these posts and catch up.

Week 1 - Image

The first week of the series we talked about image. We took a look at 4 magazines that I purchased at Barnes and Nobles. They were Seventeen, Seventeen Prom Issue, Shape, and Men's Health. The Seventeen magazines focused a lot on outward appearance. They even offered over 1300 ways to look "cute or pretty"  The magazines geared more towards adults concentrated having the best abs and buns that a person could have.

While on the surface these look fairly benign there is a bigger thing being communicated to our students. Whether intentional or not these magazines are communicating that we aren't good enough the way we are. There is the idea that in order to be perfect  we need to buy these magazines and do whatever they say in order to reach some goal that doesn't really exits. As I pointed out to the students, this magazine doesn't want you to have great abs, they just want you to keep buying their magazine. That's why each month they have 42 new ways to get great abs.

The point of this talk was to teach students that when thinking about their image they shouldn't consult magazines written by man. They should instead look to God. We talked about this verse:

Genesis 1:27- “God created man in his own image. in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

We will only be satisfied when we realize that we are created in God's image.  The world will be quick to point out where we fall short. They will be the first to say that we are too fat, too short, too tall, to weak, to....well anything. The truth is that in reality, satan wants us to forget that we are God created. He wants us to settle for less than what God intended.

When we accept that we are created by God we start to realize that even in our weaknesses we can brag about God.

2 Corinthians 12:9 says:

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

In today's society we see that a student's self-image is directly related to their desire to be sexually active. In other words, what a teen thinks about themselves can affect there decisions when it comes to sex. That's why we start here in our series.

Here are some questions that you can ask your students to foster conversation:

 1. What are 3 things that you do to try to improve flaws that you find in yourselves?

2. Fill in this sentence: I would finally be happy if ________________.

4. What can I do to help my teen understand that they are valued by me?

5. What media is my teen looking at that may affect their self-image?