I don’t think I’ve ever requested as much feedback from friends as I did with this book and its counterpart, Sex Matters, the corresponding book for teens. This subject always catalyzes a wide array of responses, so I solicited the help of numerous friends, other authors, parents, and youth workers to help me ensure a message relevant to today’s parents and then to today’s young people.
Thanks to Brian Berry, Pete Sutton, and my brother Thom, who all poured over these books in detail, offering helpful feedback and tweaks. Thanks to Julie Smith, Sande Quattlebaum, Jennifer Smith, Rick Nier, and Joe and Kerry Vivian. Your insights as parents were extremely helpful. Thanks to so many of my blog readers at JonathanMcKeeWrites.com who sent in common questions they hear from young people. And thanks to the many friends and colleagues in the field of parenting and youth ministry who read this book and offered the kind endorsements you see in the first few pages.
Thanks to my friend and agent Greg Johnson from WordServe for making this project happen. Thanks to Andy, Carra, Ellen, and the entire team at Bethany for your hard work on these books, helping make them practical tools to put in the hands of young people, parents, and youth workers.
And thanks mostly to my family for supporting me through this project, putting up with my endless questions and prodding about the subject. You guys rock!
But anything truly good that appears on these pages is from God, who deserves all the credit. God, thanks for your amazing design of sex and intimacy! It’s mind-boggling why we constantly mess it up. Thanks for enduring with us when we do. We don’t deserve your undeniable love and grace.