Kissing?

It's a bit odd to change topics from General Conference to Easter to kissing - but a new Mormon Times article on kissing might be an interesting discussion starter for young women. It's titled "Counsel for Latter-day Saint singles on kissing." If we can help young women be virtuous in every aspect of their lives, they will be prepared to enter the temple, make and keep sacred covenants, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

Here are a few excerpts from the article:

President Spencer W. Kimball said: “Kissing has been prostituted and has degenerated to develop and express lust instead of affection, honor and admiration. To kiss in casual dating is asking for trouble. What do kisses mean when handed out like pretzels and robbed of sacredness?”

How is one to avoid prostituting kisses or using them to express lust rather than affection? LDS.org uses the term “passionate kissing” to describe kissing that crosses the line. But, like President Kimball’s kissing quote, I’m not sure we all know what “passionate kissing” means. After much Googling, I mainly came up with revealed definitions for what passionate kissing is not....

More information on this topic:

For the Strength of Youth online: Sexual Purity

The April 2010 New Era focuses on dating - a great resource

"Serious Questions, Serious Answers" - a talk by Elder Richard G. Scott that addresses questions about sexual purity. These might be helpful questions to go over with your young women.

"Speaking of Kissing" - New Era article by Bruce Monson

"What Do Kisses Mean?" - New Era article by John Bytheway

Mormonads - here's a link to the one shown above: Look Forward


Ideas for using these resources

Young Women Manual 3 Lessons 15, 16, 17, and 18 on the temple should be coming up. You could plan an activity on dating standards that lead to the temple. You could assign young women various resources to review and share or organized a dating standards panel.

How would you use these resources? (leave a comment)