What is the Best
Choice?
By Emily Limbaugh
Best ChoiceSM is a program
that teaches youth about sexual integrity. The program is presented in four
50-minute classes, but each presentation can be tailored 
to
fit various classroom situations, youth group meetings, as well as Sunday
School classes. Best
Choice presentations are fast-paced, fun and informative as well as interactive.
The program is available across the entire
What exactly happens in the classroom?
Day one, the focus is on the word integrity. What does it mean and why is it so important to live a life of integrity? The word sexual is then added to the word integrity. We like to say that sexual integrity is expressing the gift of sexuality throughout life in a true, excellent, honest and pure way. Living a pure life is being free from anything inferior. When we examine the word inferior, we are basically referring to anything that we were not designed to experience. Sexually transmitted diseases would be inferior, as well as a great deal of emotional stress caused by the onset of sexual activity. We then discuss a blueprint of what sexual integrity looks like in five categories: emotional, physical, social, intellectual and spiritual. The students are encouraged to examine that if too much emphasis is put on any one of those categories, our thinking becomes skewed. When we examine our over-sexualized society, it is clear to see that the physical category has been given too much emphasis. It is crazy for us to think we can simply be physical with someone without our emotions and every other part getting involved.
Day two is spent talking primarily about sexually transmitted diseases and the myth of “safe sex.” Students are encouraged to talk very candidly and ask tons of questions. Students participate as they share their goals with one another aloud. If sex is used in the wrong way it is going to build bondage. If it is used in the right way (marriage), it is freeing. Sex in marriage is supposed to build trust and security. If it is used outside of the covenant of marriage, it builds the opposite.
Day three, a great deal of time is spent discussing the media and its influence on us. We discuss the brain and the bonding chemical it releases called oxytocin. When used in the right context, oxytocin bonds a husband and wife and builds unity. When used in the wrong context, oxytocin is released with multiple partners, resulting in the weakening of that bonding mechanism. This is one reason that our over-sexualized society has a hard time with commitment. Too many bonds have been made and ultimately broken. When talking about the brain, we also discuss pornography and how viewing it does not satisfy the appetite, but increases it. This sets the stage for addiction. Pornography exploits sexuality for the purpose of profit. It ultimately devalues sex and replaces a person with an object.
Day four is the day we emphasize hope. Peer speakers share stories, as well as personal testimonies. Love versus lust is discussed as students analyze that the deception with lust is that we think if we just give into it once, we can quench its desire. In reality, giving into lust only makes our desire for it multiply. Students are left with the challenge to start over regardless of past decisions.
The results we see each week are astounding! Nearly 80% of previously sexually active teens that we survey decide to save sex for marriage by the end of our four day presentation. In the two years of delivering the Best Choice message, I’ve learned that simply talking about the physical ramifications of STDs and teen pregnancy are not enough. The light bulbs seem to turn on once the students understand that beyond STDs and teen pregnancy, the most destructive thing sex outside of marriage does is mess with their emotions. The purpose of sex is spiritual oneness. Is God trying to protect us from our own stupidity? Absolutely. God has called us to a higher standard, and living a life of sexual integrity will always be the Best Choice.
“God
is very clear about the boundaries of sex, even though it pains us in this
current age. Sex is encouraged between one man and one woman for one lifetime.
All other sexual practices are not endorsed by God.” (Dr. James Dobson)
