When our questions and fears surrounding our kids’ use of social media overwhelm us, these five gospel principles can help provide peace and direction.

Instead of clinging to our children as they grow, we can gradually deliver them from dependence on mom to dependence on Christ.

Our calling as believers isn’t limited to one season, or even to motherhood. We can faithfully love God and others no matter how we spend our days.

As seasons of motherhood change and our children are less in our care, we can entrust them to our heavenly Father who faithfully cares for us and our children in every season.

We all want an A+ grade for our reputation and our kids’ good behavior , don’t we? But the gospel says our kids aren’t projects to ace, but sinners in need of grace.

There’s no denying we are what we eat; what is your family feasting on? What we treasure in our homes is often reflected in the hearts and lives of our children.

Do you remember the first time your parents or friends talked to you about sex?

I wouldn’t describe the emotions that I experienced from the conversation with my mom or with my friends as positive. And yet, in Genesis 2:25 we have a description of a very positive experience. Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed.

Can you imagine a scenario where you could be completely naked, emotionally and physically, and be unashamed? Nothing to hide. Nothing to cover. No good parts to emphasize. No bad parts to deemphasize.

This is the beauty of the sexual experience as God intends it.

We know that our kids won’t get the biblical view of sex from culture. The culture swings between sex being too important and not important at all. It is the end all of every great experience and it is so unimportant you can engage in it with anyone.

We need to give our kids a different view. We need to give our kids a grace-centered, biblical view of sex.

The question is how do we talk about sex to our children in a way that validates the goodness of sex, the way God intended, without shaming or scaring them into thinking sex is a bad thing.

How do we stand next to our child and give them more than a list of dos and don’ts?

We must show our children that a relationship with Jesus is better than any other experience. And we must make sure they know that no sin, sexual or otherwise, is beyond the grace of God. We can only give a complete biblical view of sex when we affirm that Christ loves the prostitute as much as he loves the woman who was a virgin when she got married.

Grace levels all of us.

This glorious news is worth the embarrassment that you may feel in any conversation with your kids.

So smile, and share.

No parent wants to wade through difficult issues with their kids. But sometimes the unavoidable things are God’s grace to us and our child. Sometimes they are the very things he uses to draw us more to himself.