I don't think 1 Cor 6 is the best passage to use on a question like this. The context is about sexual sin. That is a very different thing than health and safety. For those things you need to start with "thou shalt not kill". The tradition of the church has always interpreted that broadly to include respect for all life, including you own. That means not taking foolish risks with you life. Not sure what this boy is doing but it just might qualify as a foolish risk.

While 1 Cor 6 does deal with sexual sin, it's important to teach children respect for their bodies at a level they can relate to. Children who are too young to grasp the implications of sexual impurity are often old enough to grasp the concept of "showing respect" for their bodies by covering and protecting them. They might not make the connection between their actions and "thou shalt not kill" quite so readily.

Heidi Hess Saxton
Editor of Canticle (http://www.canticlemagazine.com/).
Author of "Behold Your Mother" and "Raising Up Mommy" (http://www.christianword.com/).

I remember as a kid riding bicycles for endless hours without a helmit.  We all fell but no one sustained head trauma.  And the neighborhood news network, that traveled faster than anythingI know, also indicated there were NO incidents of children falling and hitting their heads and sustaining serious head trauma throughout my childhood and adolescence.  And I'll bet that almost everyone in my era can attest to what I have written,too. 

It seems we as a nation want to put a protective bubble around our children so they sustain no harm of any kind.  And it harms the normal development of our children.  Bumps and bruises are a part of growing up and we can't legislate or prevent them.

 And now, it's going into little league.  Some people want our children to wear goggles and all sorts of paraphanalia to prevent injuries.

 It's going too far.  I think the opinion of the author is slanted by this notion of total pain and trauma prevention.  We must have some common sense about play.

And one more thing.  We try to legislate pain out of childhood when we as a nation have legalized a procedure that ends the life of the unborn.  And this, by medical accounts, is a very painful procedure to the fetus about to be killed.

Thanks Heidi! Spoken like a mom who understands:-)

I guess sometimes it is difficult to convey a simple point.  Mine here being that kids ought to be taught that their bodies are, indeed, temples to the Holy Spirit and those lessons present themselves in kid-appropriate ways.  As the child grows, so too, do the lessons and Church teachings.  But unless seeds are planted the future lessons will have nowhere to take root.

This so is not about regulating pain-free childhood experiences nor jumping into explanations about sexual sin with a young child but about a young kid and his mom who had a conversation that was, clearly, better left private

Hey, Cheryl — I'm the editor around here and I thought it was a good article to make public!

Interesting.

As a parent, I would have told him it was sinful because it broke the fourth commandment. I assume you have told him to wear a helmet when he rides his skateboard.

This might lead to a teachable moment about why parents make prohibitions on their child's freedom, and to a teachable moment about restrictions given by a Father out of love for his children and the grace received when a child's obedience is given out of love for the Father.

But the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit is also a good way to answer. Your son's soul is much more important than his skateboard, his helmet, or even his getting stitches in his head.

Mraiello,

I, too, rode a bike without a helmet as a child and sustained no life-threatening injuries. But. About 11 years ago, I was riding my bike training for a triathlon. I was not going fast at the time (I was just about 1/4 mile from home, just starting out on my ride), I was not riding in traffic (it was early on a Saturday morning), and so on. Nothing out of the ordinary. And then I ran over one of those smallish round utility plates in the road that was disguised by a crosswalk and lost control of my bike. Next thing I remember, I am in an ambulance on my way to the hospital, with lights and sirens because when asked, I didn't know the date. I had the worst headache imaginable for three solid days, and whiplash so bad that I had to support my head with my hands when I would sit up because my neck muscles were incapable of doing it. The police officers who took my bike back to my home and told my husband what was happening told him that it was a good thing that I was wearing a helmet, because it was my helmet that cracked and not my skull.

And the son of a friend a few years back nearly died when he fell off his skateboard and hit his head...he was not wearing a helmet at the time. I don't remember how long he was in a coma.

So count me as a firm believer in helmets. And seatbelts. And car seats.

I agree with Madame Editor: this was a good article to print.

Having said that, let me pose the real question:

Cheryl (and Heidi) are looking for "teachable" moments....and finding them.  I don't see them looking for "impregnable bubbles" to wrap around their children (not that we don't all wish for them, some times).  My children would be different people, now, if I'd taken advantage of some of those moments.

On the other hand, mraiello makes a point we also need to see as a "teachable moment" in evangelism.  The government, the 'experts', the media are all trying to regulate our lives into a permanent "impregnable bubble".  They are trying everything they can think of to "cheat" death--except on their own terms and in their own times.  (Why is an issue for another discussion.)

As Christians, we know that nothing happens to us without the ordaining/permissive will of God.  "Life" is the cause of death, and there's not a one of us who will come to the end of life without some suffering.  Not the government, not our own vigilance can "protect" us.

Am I advocating recklessness?  Absolutely not!  BUT, neither am I advocating looking for and/or expecting eternal life outside the One Who is Eternal Life.

Think about it.