Love For Life – creating space for honest conversations about
authentic relationships

As the colours of Autumn warm the dropping temperatures, and as the leaves crispen and fall, my mind wanders to the inevitability of our changing seasons, the relentless passing of time. Children become teenagers, teenagers adults, babies are born and we say goodbye to those at the other end of life. To linger too long in this melancholy may not be advisable, yet it does offer us a sense of perspective on the relatively brief time we spend on this planet. I once heard it quipped at a funeral, that the ‘dash’ between our year of birth and year of death seems insignificant, and yet it represents everything we do with the ‘in between’. For me, much of this ‘dash’ in my adult life has been spent creating space for honest conversations about authentic relationships as part of the team at Love For Life.

Formed in 2002, Love For Life is a Christian charity with a long-standing reputation for delivering holistic Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) in all school types and in many different community settings across Northern Ireland. Our programmes for young people, parents & carers aim to inspire, equip and resource the next generation to know their worth, flourish in their relationships and value their sexual choices.

Our young people are relentlessly pursued by messages from the surrounding culture, at a pace and intensity no previous generation has experienced. The influence of media and the increased amount of time lived online and through social media is leading to confusion, misinformation and false expectations around sexual choices and behaviour.

From the beginning, God’s design was for lives lived in relationship with Him and each other. We believe churches have a life-giving story to tell and are uniquely placed to support their young people as they develop relationships with others, to help them to look back on the ‘dash’ between their dates, and be happy with what they see.

Last year Love For Life delivered over a thousand programmes across school, community and church settings to 52, 276 young people, parents and carers. The workshops we facilitate for parents and carers provide a rare opportunity to gather over a coffee, share experiences, grapple with the tough questions, and be encouraged in a task that is, let’s face it, not for the faint hearted! I was delighted to accept an invitation to deliver one such workshop at the October meeting of Trinity Women. It was such a privilege to be with ladies from a range of ages and stages of life, drinking tea and eating tasty treats as we explored how we can best support our children and young people as they grow up in an oversexualised culture. The value in these sort of events is more than just the content shared from the front; it’s in the stories shared around the room, and the wealth of experience, both joys and trials, that is represented there.

Love For Life offers other sessions for adults, such as Face to Facebook, helping parents to navigate the online world with their children, and Anchored, inviting Christian adults to explore God’s life-giving story for relationships and sex in our current cultural context. These sessions complement the range of programmes we provide for young people in church, which explore concepts like being made in the image of God, coping with peer pressure, spotting healthy and unhealthy relationships, and understanding God’s design for relationships and sex.

Our vision for the future is every young person valuing themselves, relationships and sex in a thriving society and we believe that together, it’s possible. Our work relies on the generosity of churches and individuals like you, so get in touch if you would like to stand with us financially to ensure young people continue to hear a possible, purposeful, and life-giving vision for their character and relational choices.

Our team would love to meet more of the wonderful family at Trinity, so do also get in touch by emailing [email protected] to discuss how we can support you again in the future.

So what will we do with our ‘dash’? Most likely, between us all, we will enact a series of exceptional and ordinary feats, in areas of ministry, service, and creativity, as diverse as the universe itself. As part of this, our desire at Love For Life is for churches to create space for honest conversations about authentic relationships. But whatever we do, let’s ‘do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.’ (Colossians 3:17)

To find out more check out https://www.loveforlife.org.uk/