A TALK FOR GIRLS ABOUT PORNOGRAPHY

Dear sweet daughters of God, I am blessed to share some important thoughts with you.  I have daughters and granddaughters and know there are some things that we girls would rather not have to know about.  I'm sure our Father in Heaven would rather we didn't need to know either. He loves his daughters and wants to protect us from the evil things of life, but because of the reality of Satan and the ways of the world it is important that I discuss a disturbing topic, so we can protect ourselves.  I will talk to you about Pornography.

1. What it is and what can it do to you?
2. How you can avoid it.
3. How you can overcome it, if it has become any part of your life.

What is pornography? – Pornography is any entertainment that uses immodest or indecent images to stimulate sexual thoughts and feelings.

We often think of sexual feelings as being bad or dirty but Heavenly Father didn't intend for them to be that way.  Some people have made them appear that way with dirty talk and jokes, but proper sexual feelings are not bad; they were given to us by our God who loves us, for a good purpose.  In "The Family:  A Proclamation to the World " we read, "The sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between a man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife."  President James E Faust, said," When these sacred gifts are exercised as the Lord intended, within the bounds of a temple marriage, they bring us our greatest joy and happiness. We become co-creators with God in having family and posterity. Chastity before marriage followed by fidelity after marriage is a sacred passport of self-respect and happiness for everyone.

Giving birth to your children will be one of the happiest things you will ever do, knowing that together you and your husband helped create those little babies, through your love for each other and your gift from Heavenly Father, of procreation. This great desire that brings the two of you together will bring you so much happiness. It is not bad, it is not dirty it is a beautiful gift from God.

The one who makes sexuality appear wrong is Satan. He knows what happiness it can bring to God's children and he will do everything to make it evil.

One of the ways he does that is through Pornography. He tempts us with bad things, like indecent pictures, which produce those feelings and encourages you to use those feelings in ways that are against what God teaches. He substitutes the natural feelings of love with lust. When people have lust, which has nothing to do with love, those sexual feelings can be used in the wrong way to produce babies out of wedlock, cause diseases and even result in abuse.

Another horrible consequence of using pornography is that the feelings it produces can become addictive.  When constantly looking at those pictures and images the chemicals in your brain change, so eventually you must continue using pornography or you will go through withdrawal symptoms, just like someone who is on heavy drugs, like Cocaine.

People turn to pornography and drugs to create those feelings when they want to avoid facing problems and handling life. After they have had their fix of pornography and drugs, they still have the problem. Nothing has changed but now they feel guilty and depressed. Now they have a new problem on top of the old one.

So if pornography is so bad what can we do to avoid it? What have I done?

First: Speak up against eviI.

I am very thankful; I have always had a natural instinct to stay away from evil things. When I was a little girl, I would go to the movies and if there were bad things in them I would complain to the manager of the theater. I am still the same today, not afraid to speak up.

I hope you can develop that quality in yourself, so that you always know what is right or wrong. You can just feel it. When something is evil you must speak up or walk away.  You must guard yourself from evil.

I learned, very young, just like President Hinkley said, "Avoid Pornography like the plague."

Second:  Stand up for the right.

One night, when I was older and had children, I took them to a drive-in movie. That night they were playing a terrible movie with pornography in it.  I had not known this as it was billed as an animated movie.  We immediately left for home.  I was so angry that I wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper to warn others.

I guess my letter was a good one because a lot of people responded, many from other churches. We formed a group called -Citizens against Pornography - It was very successful. We got all of the porno magazines off the shelves of the grocery stores and other stores had to put them up where children couldn't get them. We also had laws passed in Canada, against Child Pornography.

I hope you won't be afraid to do what you can to stop evil and promote good.

Third: Be an example of Righteousness

I hope when you are a mother you will do as I have done. I have never had bad reading material in my home for my children to pick up. I have always tried to be an example of righteousness for my children to follow. If Jesus walked into my home I would not be embarrassed. In my home we can stand in Holy places.

Surround yourself with good things:  the scriptures, spiritual, decent and pleasant movies, righteous books, uplifting music. You can train your mind to enjoy lovely things and get bad things out of your thoughts and life. You can choose good friends. You can look for the good. You must guard your purity. You can choose the right (CRT).

Remember: "no unclean thing can enter The Kingdom of God." Remember also, that Satan wants to destroy you in any way he can. Don't let him!

I can testify of this:  pornography will never bring you happiness.  It will only bring you pain. I have witnessed the consequences of addiction because my husband and I head an addiction recovery program, at our church.  The people who come to our classes who have addictions  are very unhappy people. They have lost their spirituality and often their families.  They live in constant fear that someone will find about their addiction and they hate themselves because they can't control themselves. Whatever good feelings they thought they had when they started their addiction was not worth it.

You now know what pornography is and how to avoid it but what if you already have the problem yourself?

If images trigger sexual feelings in you, you should avoid them. If you have just started looking at pornography, you must stop immediately before it gets a hold on you. If it does have a hold on you must get help. It is not easy to overcome. You must talk to your parents, your Bishop or church leader and get help so you can be free. Girls are not immune to this terrible addiction. Pornography addiction is a progressive addiction which just keeps getting worse if you don't get help.

Jesus Christ loves you and wants us you to be happy and He will help you overcome this problem.

President Faust said. "These are challenging times.  I believe your spirits may have been reserved for these latter days, for you righteous influence on others."

You righteous daughters of God must stay clean and pure and be examples to your friends and family and live righteously so you will avoid the terrible pain of addiction and also so you can be free to have a happy righteous future.

Now you know for sure what Pornography is and how to avoid it and how to get help if you have been affected by it.

I hope you will share this message with your friends.

Thank you for letting me share with you this important topic. I pray that it will help you make good choices.

I know God loves you and wants you to be happy. I love you too.

I know the things we talked about are true.

I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen