You are worth waiting for....

Waiting until marriage?  Sounds like an old rule doesn’t it?  They teach sex education in school, so it must be ok right?  Everybody is doing it, and there is really no reason not to, right?

There is a nothing farther from the truth.  Beyond the moral standpoint of respecting yourself and saving yourself for your husband to be, there are many health risks involved. Here are some of the facts. But I want you to know, most importantly, YOU are worth waiting for.

New estimates show that there are about 20 million new infections in the United States each year.
 

Young people age 15 to 24 account for 50 percent of all new STIs, although they represent just 25 percent of the sexually experienced population.
 

Roughly 75 percent of all reported gonorrhea is found in people age 15 to 29, with the highest infection rates found in teen girls age 15 to 19 and 20 to 24-year-old men.
 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are more than 110 million STIs among men and women in the U.S. This includes both new and existing infections. 
 

The annual number of new infections is roughly equal among teen girls (51 percent) and teen guys (49 percent).
 

HPV (human papillomavirus) accounts for the majority of prevalent STIs in the U.S.
 

The U.S. has the highest rate of STD infection in the industrialized world.
 

46% of American high school students have had sexual intercourse and potentially are at risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, other STDs.
 

6 in 10 sexually active high school teens reported using condoms during their most recent sexual intercourse.
 

1 in 4 teens contracts an STD/STI every year.
 

Less than half of adults age 18 to 44 have ever been tested for an STD other than HIV/AIDS.

When we understand our self-worth and the love we were meant to have, we begin to understand why we were meant to wait.  We need to understand the purpose for each and every one of us.  It’s all in the story.  God made us in his image.  We are fearfully and wonderfully made!  He made us as body-soul people.  Male & women are givers and receivers of love.  That real love is a sign of God’s love for us. Love goes deeper than emotion, it is a choice to want and work toward the best for someone else, even when it is difficult.  When love is missing from our lives, we begin to pursue it, sometimes in the wrong places.   

The ultimate goal in life is to have an intimate relationship with God.  He gave us free will, meaning it’s our choice to be with him, or not.  He also gave us a desire for love, His love.  If you think of marriage as a triangle, husband and wife on the bottom, and him on the top.  

My point is not to scare you.  When we follow the guidelines we were given, there is no reason to be afraid.  I am sharing this with you, because I wasn’t given those morals as a teenager.  My parents never had “the talk” with me.  If I hadn’t met my husband so young, I would have had sex before marriage. I remember clearly my early years in high school wondering when it was going to happen for me.  Everyone else was doing it so I thought it was OK. My husband’s parents did talk with him and gave him a moral perspective, which he abided by and wasn’t going to cross that.  Was there temptation?  Of course!  It wasn’t easy but we made it thru and so can you.  It takes commitment from both you and your partner.  Bottom line, IF the love is real, it will stand the test of time.  

What if you’ve already had sex outside of marriage?  It’s okay!  Ask for forgiveness, it WILL be given, and you can move on.  You can take a vow of virginity from this point out and wait for your husband to be.  

If your boyfriend doesn’t agree, and doesn’t want to wait, he isn’t meant to be.  If he loves you, he will wait.  Marriage takes commitment as does starting a family.  If you aren’t ready for either, you need to wait.   

As I scan through this blog I see the word wait a quite a few times.  The world is such a busy place, and I know it tells you otherwise. There are magazines, tv shows, internet that all scream it’s ok.  From my perspective, putting my body at risk for a one night fling, is not worth it to have something now.  Put yourself and your mind in control of your emotions and your physical needs.  Just because we feel the need, or the emotions does not make it real.  We really need to think through our goals, our priorities and what we feel is morally right.  

I will end this with a Poem written by Portia Nelson in 1989.  This is a great story about how we mature and learn from our prior mis-haps.  When we humble ourselves enough to understand that we do make mistakes (everyone does) we begin to grow.

There’s a Whole in My Sidewalk

An Autobiography in 5 Short Chapters

I walk down the street.  There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.  I fall in.  I am… I am helpless.  It isn’t my fault.  It takes forever to find a way out.

I walk down the same street.  There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.  I pretend I don’t see it. I fall in again.  I can’t believe I am in this same place.  But it isn’t my fault. It still takes a long time to get out.

I walk down the same street.  There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.  I see it there.  I still fall in…it’s a habit…but, my eyes open, I know where I am.  It is my fault.  I get out immediately.

I walk down the same street.  There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.  I walk around it.

I walk down the other street.