A Fireside about "You-Know-What"

A couple of months ago, John and I were invited, along with the other two members of the stake presidency and their wives, to speak at three different firesides entitled "Strengthening Marriage". There are many couples that come to the stake president each month, struggling to keep their marriage together. Each couple from the stake presidency was to speak for 30 minutes on a specific topic: spiritual intimacy, emotional intimacy or physical intimacy. Guess which one John and I got? :-)

For John, this was fairly easy. He talks about sex everyday in his job. I don't have any problem talking about it with small groups of women (namely, my friends), but the idea of speaking about it in front of strangers was daunting. Nevertheless, we thought about this for weeks, and literally hoped for the inspiration of the Spirit. It's a fine line to give enough help, but to not get into too many specifics in only 30 minutes. We didn't want to offend anyone (just saying "sex" in church felt rather strange), but we didn't want every question to go unanswered.

Anyway, we pulled off the first of three firesides last night to great acclaim! We quickly ran over some very serious problems and had many light and funny moments too. Because so many people showed up (over 80), we ran the fireside circuit style: three groups of 25, or so, people that rotated through the three classes. It was the stake presidency's hope that the smaller classes would help people feel more comfortable (I think they were thinking mostly about ours!) I must admit that was A LOT of talking for us, and it was a trip, finishing one discussion, resetting props and the chalkboard, and starting over again, but it turned out great. I'm not sure I've ever seen so much laughing at church!

At the end of the evening, everyone reconvened in the chapel for closing remarks and a prayer. Our group was the last one in, and you should have seen all the smiles and all-over happiness from them. I heard someone comment to one of our final group, "I know which class you just came from!" When I asked President Price if people had come to his class happy from ours, he smiled and said "yes". Someone overhearing that said, "We were SMILING from the class, but we were TALKING about Sister Kennedy!" He ran off smiling and left me speechless. :-)

Anyway, my note to my children is this. You may think it's crazy and embarrassing how much we talk about sex around our home, teaching you that it's a wonderful, fun thing to experience after marriage, but it's a GOOD thing to talk about it freely and openly. I promise you it will help you later on in life. And if you ever need any advice, don't be afraid to ask!