My friend Mark sent me this email and, frankly, I’m stumped on how to delicately answer his daughter’s question. He writes:
Hey Jim,
My wife and I had a really awkward experience during our vacation last week. Any chance you could give us some advice on how to handle it? Here’s what happened. We were traveling on the stretch of highway from the Orlando, Florida area heading south toward West Palm Beach. The kids were sitting in the back of our minivan, engrossed in 
their fifth episode of Adventures in Odyssey.
Meanwhile, my wife and I were enjoying some good coffee and conversation upfront. Everyone was having a great time. That’s when my daughter asked me a question caught me totally off guard. She said, “Daddy, what do those signs mean?"
“Which sign?” I glanced in the rearview mirror to see what she was talking about.
“Those billboards,” she said, pointing out the window on her side of the minivan. “The ones that say ‘We Bare All’” I cringed. I knew what she was talking about. For the last thirty miles or so, I couldn’t help but see them, too. While I had hoped the kids wouldn’t notice them, I knew they were impossible to miss.
I’m talking giant billboards the size of tractor trailers sprouting from the ground like weeds on both sides of the highway. Several featured the silhouette of a female figure (like those chrome images on a truckers’ mud flaps). A number of them had phrases like “Adult Playland” and “Adult Toys” in five-foot tall lettering. There was even one called “The Lion’s Den”—talk about ironic.
I should point out our children are ages 11, 8, and 4. It was the eleven-year-old who asked the question. While we haven’t had the “sex talk” with her yet, she’s sharp so I knew I couldn’t NOT answer her question . . . at the same time I resented the fact that my hand was being forced because of these lurid billboards.
To be candid, I stalled for time because I had no clue what to say. I mean, how do you tell an innocent child what goes on in one of those places? I told my daughter we’d talk about it later—and “later” is now. Now what? I sure could use a few suggestions on how to handle this.
Whether it’s a suggestive billboard on the highway or a risqué commercial on television during the “family hour,” there comes a time when the culture puts us in the uncomfortable position of addressing a tricky topic before we may be prepared to do so. That said, I’d love for you to weigh in. How would you tackle his daughter’s question?
Rita J.
says:
We're all faced with the challenge of how best to introduce "innocence" to the "world". I have two grandkids growing up without the influence of Christian Parents.My wife and I will do our best to provide guidance for them, however, limited it might be. I remember as a child not having parents who helped educate and bring us up in the "Way of the Lord". My two brothers and I kinda picked things up as we grew into "life" but then that was a different time. I'm 68. Jim, as I embark on a new phase of my life, just yesterday, I had the same question as you, How will I handle the challenge of communicating the need for abstinence and purity to a whole segment of world society i.e. the men of rural Africa who think of women as objects of instant gratification and satisfaction without any regard for the sanctity and respect of human life. They have no moral standards or religious tenants to act otherwise. When the time comes I try to imagine and must prepare for how to teach a "Basics of life 101" course to a clueless segment of world humanity. If not us then who? The rest of God's animal kingdom have and follow an inherent "order of Life". We, Man, have usurped God's Order & Authority and taken it upon ourself to speed and lead in our own self destruction. We must deal with evil, Absence of God, the best we can until Jesus returns.