It’s Great to Wait
By, Toni Smothers
Did you know that there are sixth grade, 12 year old children, who are sexually active? And, an astounding sixty percent of teens have had sex, twenty-five percent have contracted a sexually transmitted disease (STD), and twenty percent of the girls have become pregnant by age eighteen. Why?
Puberty starts a lot earlier than it did years ago. Currently, hormones begin raging at 10 to 11 years of age. Primetime media has significant underlying sexual content as the norm. Sex saturates the music industry. Peers exhort a very strong influence. Teens think that digital and oral sex are not real sex and so they can’t get a STD doing it. Then there’s alcohol and drugs at parties, which ends up in non-characteristic choices, as well as in date rape. Alcohol and drugs give guys more courage and makes girls more willing or so doped up that they don’t even know what’s going on.
The cliché is often, “If you love me, you’ll have sex with me.” Ah, but where’s the respect? Love is long and deep and wide and it can’t be copied on a one night ride or a short lived relationship – That only leads to guilt and broken hearts. Respecting your partner, committing your life long goals and dreams to them is the way true love grows into maturity. And sex has no place outside of marriage.
So in this kind of environment, how do teens keep their faith and lives uncontaminated?
It’s not like you can go hide under a rock until you become the right age for marriage. Every day, some outside influence is trying to make you think that having babies and STDs is run of the mill. Also, most teens think, “It couldn’t happen to me.” But, believe me, there are no such exemptions. We reap what we sow.
Listen to what part of the 119th Psalm says: “Happy are people of integrity, who follow the law of the Lord. Happy are those who obey his decrees and search for him with all their hearts. They do not compromise with evil, and they walk only in His paths.” (v. 1-3 NIV)
Easier said then done, right? But, God wants only the best for you and He wants you to remain pure. Remember, God’s Word, the Bible, is the only sure guide for living a pure life. The 9th verse of Psalm 119 both asks and answers a relevant question. “How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word and following its rules.” … Is it easy? No way – Is it right? Absolutely!
We are drowning in a sea of impurity. Everywhere we look, we find temptation to lead impure lives. What does a young person do? We cannot do this on our own but must have counsel and strength more dynamic than the tempting influences around us. Where can we find that strength and wisdom? By reading God’s Word and doing what it says
DAVID SMOTHERS 