The teenage years can be tough, especially when it comes to talking about sex. To help combat the discomfort of parents and children alike, the Educational Guidance Institute (EGI), a Front Royal-based nonprofit that promotes abstinence and marriage education, has created a program using classic films to make dialogue about sexual activity and relationships easier.

For the last three years, EGI implemented the federally funded Project Heart to Heart in Love, Life and Marriage at three locations in the Washington, D.C., area, including St. Anthony of Padua Church in Falls Church.

Last Saturday, former Miss Virginia Julie Laipply Carrier wrapped up the three-year program with an energetic talk encouraging teens to make healthy choices.

Carrier told the teens to stand up for their friends and to choose friends that stand up for them; to stand up for the truth and not to “buy the media lie” that says teens are only attracted by sex, drugs or conflict; and to stand up for their hearts. She advised the teens to remain drug free and to practice abstinence in order to protect their hearts.

“The choices that you make while you’re dating someone help to set that foundation for the marriage you are going to have,” she said.

Carrier’s talk dovetailed with the message of Project Heart to Heart, which used a curriculum called “Love and Life at the Movies” to educate teens and young adults on abstinence and marriage. Characters in movies such as “Roman Holiday,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” — and a couple of newer ones like “Remember the Titans” — are used to teach lessons on healthy relationships in love and marriage, self-giving versus self-love, and character and the common good.

Dr. Onalee McGraw, director of the EGI and Project Heart to Heart, said the films depict “goodness, truth and beauty.

“We have about 10 to 12 films that we’ve done where romance and courtship is actively depicted on the screen so that the kids can see love and life and sex together in their proper place of marriage,” she said.

When parents and their teens watch the films together, it gives them some common ground to discuss major subjects on, as well as some space in which to digest the information, McGraw said.

In essence, the films, shown to both parents and teens, give families a springboard for discussing topics that may otherwise be difficult to broach.

Marlin Gomez, a catechist at St. Anthony and mother of two teenage boys, attended Project Heart to Heart for all three years — the first two with her oldest son, Christian, and the last one with both Christian and Alexis.

“Before I came to the program it was kind of embarrassing for me to talk to him about sex and abstinence,” she said. “But after the first time that I came I started to feel more comfortable.”

Gomez said the films give her sons an opportunity to talk about what they have learned.

“Even if they don’t talk a lot, I know that they have all that information and I know they’re going to use it,” she said.

Gomez and both her sons were at Carrier’s talk Saturday when she challenged the teens to live responsible, healthy lives.

“Tonight it’s not my story that matters,” Carrier said. “The story that matters is your story. The story that you choose to write from this day forward.”

“Love and Life at the Movies” lesson plans are available for purchase through EGI.

Find out more

EDIonline.org.

540/635-4420

info@egionline.org