Sexuality Mentality: Creating a Culture of Biblical Integrity

by Heather Ruesch

Teens hear a lot of conflicting viewpoints about sex.

The world tells them to follow their heart and do what feels right—that sex isn’t a big deal, that pornography isn’t harmful, that modesty is old-fashioned.

But that’s not how God designed sex. Sex is a precious and sacred gift to be enjoyed in the right context, according to God’s design.

We need to have honest conversations with youth about pornography, self-pleasure, homosexuality, modesty, the value of human life, and, yes, sex.

God gives us grace upon grace to teach our children about purity according to His Word. He equips parents, pastors, teachers, and youth workers to connect to the deeper wisdom the Bible provides and begin the conversation about sexual integrity.

Author Heather Ruesch is a well-respected life issues speaker and singer/songwriter. She is passionate about youth and about being a voice of God’s truth in their lives. Heather is an abstinence educator and certified pregnancy center advocate and has served as executive director of crisis pregnancy centers.

176 pages, Paperback

Published September 4, 2018

About the author

Heather Ruesch is a well-respected life issues speaker and singer/songwriter. She is passionate about youth and about being a voice of God’s truth in their lives. Heather is an abstinence educator and certified pregnancy center advocate and has served as executive director of crisis pregnancy centers. She and her husband Matt have three children and live in Michigan.

Reviews

[Emma Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I SO badly wanted to love this book. As a Lutheran middle school teacher, I was looking for something that would help me navigate difficult conversations with the preteens and teens I have the privilege of serving. I appreciate the author’s focus on valuing the personhood of all - this is such a key point when working with teens. She did a great job connecting every topic to the way that God has designed us, rather than just giving a list of activities that are approved or not approved.

While the core intention of the book is wonderful, I struggled with the execution. It often jumped back and forth between topics without logical sentence order or clear explanation. Some chapters (especially chapters 2 and 3) felt more like a collection of pamphlets that were combined together and reformatted into a book. I think this book would be served well if it were to get a more carefully edited second edition in a couple of years. The author is a gifted speaker and communicator, so I’m confident she has the ability to put together coherent and effective ideas. (It does seem as though CPH generally struggles at times to transition prolific Lutherans from speakers to writers. I’ve read a few other books in recent years that feel a bit sloppy too.)

Summary: Mrs. Reusch is coming from a great foundation and has the right experience to do this type of book well. I’d love to see a clearer, more effectively written version released later!

[Christopher Raffa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very readable resource for parents, pastors, and those who work in and around the youth of our time. A lot of of what is written we are quite aware of. But in this book, there are helpful ways to engage our children in the conversation of how, as children of God, we confess the good and right place that sex is to have among us. This book also helps one to avoid the proverbial pitfalls and thought processes that often come out of our mouths and that are simply mimicking the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. There is hope, grace, peace, forgiveness, and the Christ from whom come all these things, in the center of this book. I would highly recommend it to those whose responsibilities involve teaching the children of God to be exactly that, children made in the image of their Heavenly Father and not in image of the world. If anything, this book is a great conversation starter, to a conversation that we must have with our youth, with the Church militant, the struggling Church in the face of so much enticement to be simply who we were not created to be by our dear Christ.

[Becky Filipek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a helpful book. It's written more for parents of teens, but I'm going to have my teens read it themselves. It is 5 years old now, so the temptation currently is more on the T of the LGBT than the other letters, but everything in the book still applies.