Hey friend, welcome to Job with Julie. I'm Julie Slattery, and this listener-supported podcast is an outreach of authentic intimacy, a ministry dedicated to reclaiming God's design for sexuality.

Well, parents, a lot of times will ask me, how do I teach my kids about God's design for sexuality?

That's a difficult question for me to answer. While there

are books that explain the birds and the bees and helpful resources on how to have the talk

with preteens, we can miss some foundational pieces of sexual discipleship. Young or old, you cannot walk out

God's design for sex without character.

Let's face it, living with sexual integrity often means we have to say no to what we want

in the moment.

If you expect life to always be easy and comfortable, you won't be able to resist the tempting

comfort of pornography, for example, or you'll struggle to stay in a marriage once the feelings of love

begin to fade. That's why the conversation I want to share with you today is absolutely critical

to sexual discipleship, and not just for our kids, but also for our own sexual integrity.

My guest is Dr. Kathy Cook. She is the founder and president of Celebrate Kids. She regularly speaks

at schools, churches, pregnancy resource centers, and other gatherings. And what she's going to share

with you today can also be found in her book, Resilient Kids. We'll link to that, as well as a blog

that I wrote called Parenting Through Weakness in our show notes and at

Authenticandmissy.com. And if you appreciate this conversation, we'd love to hear from you over

an Apple podcast or on your favorite podcast app. Your ratings and reviews will help others

discover job with Julie and begin to reclaim God's design for sexuality in their own lives. Will you leave

us a rating and review? We love it if you do that. Now let's head to the coffee shop for my

conversation with my friend, Dr. Kathy Cook. So I've been doing this podcast for, I think it's over

nine years now, maybe around nine years. And one of my regrets is Dr. Kathy Cook, you have never been on the podcast. How did that happen? I don't know, Julie. I'm so honored to be here today. Let's not look back with regret. Let's look forward with hope. I like it. And maybe this will be one of us several coming up. I'm honored to be here. I love your ministry. What you do uniquely is so important to our families, our couples, of course, in our culture. I'm excited to be here. Well, thanks. I feel like you and I have never had a chance before just to sit down and have coffee. It's always been seeing each other at an event at a conference and just always appreciating your work, always enjoying connecting with you. But every time I see you or see one of your books, I'm like, I need to have her on. And then it just never happens. Well, this is so cool how this did happen. And I agree. The last time that we were at an event together, we were like just passing in the hall. We would acknowledge each other's existence, but it's just so hard, you know, and praise God that people want to talk to us who are needing what we offer, and, you know, it's not about you and me in that moment. But this is super cool. I'm excited. Yeah. Well, I'm looking forward to getting to know you better. I know you through your work and through your reputation. And I'm also excited

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