By Jimmy Stopper
Several days ago, I was in the kitchen when my 10 year-old son asked me, “Dad, what is ‘The Men’s Club’?”
I was not totally taken off guard by it because I remembered that we had passed “The Men’s Club” the day before on the way to a soccer game. He told me it looked really nice and fancy from the outside and he was curious what was inside.
So how did I answer him? I first gathered my thoughts. My thoughts went something like this: I have been talking to him about sexuality since he was young and about year ago we had the full talk on how God makes babies. I thought that my wife and I, by God’s grace, had built a good foundation with him about sex and his body from God’s perspective. I knew that this was also a great opportunity to have a very serious conversation about life, God, and sin. My son was asking his father this question and I had a great opportunity to speak into my son’s life. These are the questions we want our children to ask us, not their friends. We don’t want them finding it out through the internet or other media sources either. So I concluded that he was ready to hear the answer.
I responded to his question by saying, “The Men’s Club is a place where men go to see women take their clothes off. They usually pay money to enter or to buy food and drinks so they see these naked women. The women who take their clothes off get paid for doing this.”
Yes, I said it! At that moment, I remembered that this is exactly the type of conversation the father was having with his son in Proverbs 5-7.
My son responded with, “Dad, that is really bad.” I said, “You’re right, Son. You remember what God’s Word teaches us? We are to honor God with our bodies and the only person we are to share our bodies with is our wife.” We talked about how sinful the world is and how sinful we are. That is why we need a Savior. He did mention again how nice it looked from the outside and that they must make it look that way to make you want to come in. I said, “They want men to think that it is really a nice place to go and that it is for ‘Men.'” We talked about how this place represented everything opposite of being a true MAN!
Looking back now, I should have emphasized more that we are not to look down on these women that work there or the men that go there. The proper response is compassion. These men and women are believing a lie. They need to hear the love, compassion, and truth of Jesus just as much as we do. We should pray for them to come to know Jesus. I’m guessing that I’ll have this opportunity again in the future.
The Lord blessed our conversation and I worshiped God and thanked Him for the blessing of having that conversation. I’m sure that you will have many opportunities to speak into your children’s lives in this area of sexuality. Let’s ask God to give us the courage to be the father he has created us to be in our children’s lives.
Proverbs 5:7-8 “Now then, my sons, listen to me and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house…”