Virginity Rocks

Today I saw a Christian T Shirt that said “Virginity Rocks” in hot pink letters. The early nineties color clashed with the solid black background and set my eye darting for a safer place to gaze. As with most Christian merchandise, I scoffed and engaged in my regular internal dialog. It usually goes something like this:

-In an overly chipper, televangelist voice I mockingly ask myself: “well…what would Jesus do?...

-With an eye roll and disbelief in my voice I respond: “umm…certainly he would never wear that”.

I frequently repeat this process in the Christian sub-culture currently I find myself, but unlike every time I engage in this internal Q&A, it didn’t end there. As the concept of the message began to set my neurons firing I realized the blatant lie of the statement “virginity rocks” and the danger that promoting such an idea brings.

In Genesis, the book of beginnings, we see the perfect roles of men and women as established by God. Togetherness was an imprinted part of their design and is equally found in us. God made men and women to be together, to love each other and to enjoy each other. “It is not good for man to be alone.” Virginity was only existed until Eve arrived and God knew what would happen as soon as He made her. The truth is that virginity is terrible. The problem is that the world doesn’t know the proper place of sex.

We were made to be lovers, but as redeemed humans we reserve ourselves to love only our spouses. We commit to love them knowing that sex with them will be more fulfilling if we haven’t prostituted ourselves out for pleasures sake before hand. This is the message that needs to be shared. IT is the message of a redeemed, free, Jesus following life. The idea that virginity is cool will never make it into dorm rooms or high school parking lots. Not only will that idea never penetrate culture, it would prevent any God honoring families from being raised. Sex has a special place in our lives as ordained by God, we simply must not loose ourselves to desires of the flesh.

Virginity doesn’t rock-sex is just worth the wait.

Resolve #2

Resolve: To never belittle myself or my family for the sake of humor.

Recently I have seen that many pastors and public speakers do not hold to this axiom while engaging an audience. Perhaps public speaking makes them nervous, perhaps they do not trust the example they are setting for their listeners, or perhaps they simply want to entertain people and feel self-directed humor is the best way to do so. Regardless of their motivation, I never want to employ such an action in the public arena.

We are called to be witnesses for Jesus and in doing so show people what it looks like to live a redeemed life. Part of this is setting an example that others would want to emulate. This is not an issue of outward self-righteousness, but living out our faith in our daily lives. Why would anyone ever want to follow Jesus if his followers lived self-degraded lives who mock their families? Tearing myself down or ridiculing my family will never inspire anyone to live like I live-which is the last thing I want. Jesus has transformed me and I want to demonstrate that everyone. I want to show them what a true follower of Jesus looks like and I cannot do that if I do not humbly respect myself and outwardly support my family.