Members of the church must lather on the "sin-screen" this summer to spiritually protect themselves from worldly temptations, speakers explained at a Friday afternoon session of the BYU Women's Conference.

"Why go through the pain if you don't have to?" Brad Wilcox asked in reference to the suffering associated with sin.

Wilcox, an associate professor of teacher education at BYU, opened the lecture about staying free from earth stains in his typical humorous style.

"I'm one of the only men at Women's Conference and I have the biggest purse," he said.

Recalling a painful experience of getting sunburned in Hawaii, Wilcox made a parallel with LDS youth being burned by temptations of sex, drugs, and pornography. His excuse for not using sunscreen while surfing in Hawaii is the same excuse he says many in the LDS church use today.

"I just didn't think I'd be out that long. I thought I could handle it," he said.

Wilcox said one could combat worldly temptations by using sin-screen, which he defined as the protection from the heat that really burns.

He gave four suggestions on how to protect ourselves, our children and our families from sin. First, make and keep covenants; second, see the big picture; third, nourish the spirit; and fourth, come to Christ.

"Christ is the ultimate touchable hero," Wilcox said. "Give him an inch and he will take us a mile."

Wilcox stressed the importance of parental involvement with youth. He said parents not only need to provide reasonable limits, but also need to give the reasons for those limits.

The most helpful tools for parents are to ask questions and speak clearly, Wilcox said. He told of a father's effective conversation with his son about the dangers of pornography. The father asked his boy if he wanted a good sex life.

"Of course a teenage boy will say yes," Wilcox said. Good communication resulted.

Mary Gunnell, Wilcox's mother-in-law, described how the Wilcox family stays free from worldly temptations.

"They do all those things like family home evening ... there's a lot of interaction all the way around," she said.

Camille Williams, who spoke on the same topic as Wilcox, directed her remarks to mothers.

"Our eagerness to keep children from sin can tempt us to manage ... but simply setting up consequences is not enough to teach our children."

Williams said mothers should teach their children to do good because they love God. She also said that problems such as drunk driving and sexual intimacy before marriage may be avoided by instilling within children a reverence for sacred things.

Marcee Bustillos, a mother from Trabuco Canyon, Calif., says she constantly talks to her children about temptations and how they can keep away from them.

Wendee, Wilcox's 19-year-old daughter from Provo provided insight on how to keep youth free from sin by relating how her parents raised her.

"I don't think I've ever been grounded. Part of it is that I'm a responsible kid, but part of it is that they're very understanding," Wendee Wilcox said.

"They teach us...and then they let us go. They don't control everything that we do."



Copyright Brigham Young University 5 May 2003