Tag Archives: Love

Positive Reasons to Save Sex

Intimate Couple --- Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

When you encourage teens to save sex, are you negative or positive?

Too often we are negative.

  • Don’t get pregnant as a teenager.
  • Don’t get an STD.
  • Don’t get emotional scars.
  • Condoms don’t fully protect you.

What about positive reasons to wait?

A recent study looked at whether the age of first sexual experience predicted romantic outcomes as an adult. The study put the age of first sexual experience into three categories:

  • age 14 and under
  • age 15-19
  • age 20 and up

Which group was significantly more likely to have satisfying adult romantic relationships? The age 20 and up group. Their findings held true even when they tested for other factors including body mass index, attractiveness, or differences in teenage dating.

The study defined a satisfying adult romantic relationship as having the following factors:

  • stable
  • satisfying
  • a partner who shows love and affection
  • enjoyment of day-to-day things with partner
  • happy with the way conflict is handled
  • avoidance of aggression
  • avoidance of victimization

If that wasn’t enough, saving sex until the 20’s also was linked to

  • higher achievement of educational goals
  • more income as an adult

Teens deserve the truth about teen pregnancy, STDs, condoms, and emotional scars. Just don’t neglect teaching the hope and reward from saving sex.

 

Christine Kearney. (2012, October 18). “Age Of First Sexual Experience Determines Relationship Outcomes Later In Life.” Medical News Today. Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/251640.php

Harden, K. P. (2012, September 25). True Love Waits? A Sibling-Comparison Study of Age at First Sexual Intercourse and Romantic Relationships in Young Adulthood. Psychological Science. doi:10.1177/0956797612442550

The University of Texas at Austin. (2012, October 18). Does True Love Wait? Age of First Sexual Experience Predicts Romantic Outcomes in Adulthood. Retrieved from http://www.utexas.edu/news/2012/10/18/does-true-love-wait-age-of-first-sexual-experience-predicts-romantic-outcomes-in-adulthood/

Why People Have Sex

About SexWhen we teach our young people about sex we usually start with “how.” This is commonly referred to as “the talk.”

We usually cover the “who” and the “when” by saying husbands and wives who love each other.

We never really address the “why.” By context our young people are left to determine that it is for the purpose of having children.

From a Biblical stand point, sex for the purpose of having children is pretty obvious. Genesis 4:1 says, “Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.” Later in Genesis 38, that is the motivation for Tamar but not for Judah who thought she was a prostitute. In the next chapter, Potiphar’s wife has a different motive for begging Joseph to go to bed with her. Genesis 39:6-7 explains “Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice.”

A recent study set out to find out the reasons people have sex today. They found the following top 21 reasons people engage in sex:

  • Boosting mood and relieving depression
  • Duty
  • Enhancement of power
  • Enhancement of self-concept
  • Experiencing the power of one’s partner
  • Feeling loved by your partner
  • Fostering jealousy
  • Improving reputation or social status
  • Making money
  • Making babies
  • Need for affection
  • Nurturance
  • Partner novelty
  • Peer pressure or pressure from partner
  • Pleasure
  • Reducing sex drive
  • Revenge
  • Sexual curiosity
  • Showing love to your partner
  • Spiritual transcendence
  • Stress Reduction

Go over this list with your teenagers and ask them which of these reasons are Biblical and which are wrong. This is a great exercise in applying the Bible to real world situations.

To make the exercise a little more challenging evaluate these reasons from the context of a married couple.

Which of these reasons are acceptable for a married couple to have sex? Which of them fit under the Biblical reasons of having children (Genesis 4:1), intimacy (Genesis 2:24, “the two will become one flesh”), attraction (Genesis 39:6-7), and love (Song of Songs 1:2, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth-for your love is more delightful than wine”).

Carroll, R. (2012). The Top 20 Reasons People Have Sex. , Cited in WebMD. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/guide/why-people-have-sex

Best. Kiss. Ever.

Bride and groom kissing.One of my favorite movies is The Princess Bride. It ends with this quote,

“Since the invention of the kiss, there have been five kisses rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind.”

That was the movies. Let me tell you about one that was real.

Kelly and Doug got married and had two sons. They were pretty new Christians but very dedicated. Kelly quit her job so she could homeschool her sons.

The boys were taught to trust their faith in God and allow it to guide them. When the oldest son turned 14, he promised himself that he would not kiss a girl until his wedding day. In college, he was seen at a bar, eating a burger called the “Resist Temptation,” and drinking water with lemon.

He got engaged at age 21 BEFORE he formally had his first date. Five months later he had his first kiss on his wedding day.

You may call him extreme or even unbelievable but you better think twice before you call him a wimp or a loser. Collin Klein is six-foot-five and weighs 226. He was the starting quarterback for the Kansas State Wildcats in 2012 who were ranked as high as number two. Klein was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy which is given to college football’s outstanding player who best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity.

Why would someone not even kiss until marriage? Fear? Arrogance?

Sports Illustrated explained that Klein believes “there is a kind of comfort in obedience, in the certainty that to do right you need only do what you’re told-by your father, your coach or God, or perhaps all three. This is how Collin Klein lives, in constant prayer, searching for the will of God.”

Klein’s wife says “they were ‘two broken, humble people,’ completely undeserving of love, grateful recipients of a miracle.”

When her husband simply gives her a kiss, she knows he loves her so much he that he saved all of his kisses for her. For Collin Klein, his wife is the

Best. Kiss. Ever.

(Dodd, D. (2012, October 18). Klein a legit Heisman contender, carrying K-State on broad, bruised shoulders. Retrieved from CBS Sports: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/20594928/klein-a-legit-heisman-contender-carrying-kstate-on-broad-bruised-shoulders)
(Heisman Trophy. (n.d.). Heisman trust mission statement. Retrieved from http://www.heisman.com/trust/mission_statement.php)
(Lake, T. (2012, November 19). Collin Klein first kissed his wife at the altar. Collin Klein is also one bad dude. Sports Illustrated, pp. 38-44. Retrieved from http://www.sportsillustratedeverywhere.com/issues/protected/com.timeinc.si.web.inapp.11192012/collin-klein-first-kissed-his-wife-at-the-altar-collin-klein-is-also-one-bad-dude-19434.html)
(Watson, G. (2012, November 1). Collin Klein’s faith led him to his wife and his first kiss, so why not a Heisman and a national championship. Retrieved from Dr. Saturday or how I learned to stop worrying and love the BCS: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/collin-klein-faith-led-him-wife-first-kiss-215824243–ncaaf.html)

Pride and Pornography

empty-heart-squareI had a high school sweetheart for two and a half years. I proposed to her after graduation. She would later break up with me but this article is not about that break up.

I had previously broken up with her the summer after my junior year. I went on a church mission trip to another state. I was quite smitten with a girl there, and we had a one-week summer romance.

On the drive home, I remember being very confused. I concluded that I must not love my girlfriend back home after all. If I did, I wouldn’t have acted the way I did on this trip. My reasoning was that my behavior on the trip did not meet my value that I loved my girlfriend.

I was left with two choices:
(1) Change my behavior to match my values.
(2) Change my values to match my behavior.
I chose option two. The right thing for me to do was to end that relationship so I broke up with her.

After about a month, I realized I was even more unhappy. I did indeed love my girlfriend and I was not with her. I went back to option one and we got back together.

Was this just the ways of an immature teenager? Possibly. However, I see a lot of adults doing the same thing.

There is a fundamental human principle at work: pride. Option one involves admitting wrong, asking for forgiveness, and working to do better. I had too much pride for that option. I had so much pride that option never even occurred to me. I was miserable trying to live according inauthentic values. I finally turned back to option one.

No one is perfect. We will all get out of synch with our values. Admit your mistakes. Don’t let pride force you to discard your values. Otherwise you may start looking to fill that void with pornography or sex before marriage or other behavior that you not only don’t value but actually hate. Trust me. I know.

Proverbs 16:18: Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

Isaiah 32:8: But the noble make noble plans, and by noble deeds they stand.

The Purpose of Sex

Happy coupleI had a conversation with a friend about redefining marriage to include homosexuals. Her reasoning was that we raise our kids saying, “I just want you to be happy.” If they are happy, let them be.
I replied that was not true.

Our kids are not happy cleaning their room, doing homework, or eating vegetables, yet we raise them to do those things anyway.

When our kids start dating, they are not happy when we keep them chaperoned, teach them to save sex for marriage, or set a curfew, yet we raise them to do those things anyway.

As they choose a mate, we are concerned for their welfare, safety, and security in addition to their happiness.

As I reflected on this conversation later, it hit me that the purpose of sex in our culture is “I just want to be happy.” When we are no longer happy, we divorce or go to someone else, turn to pornography or homosexuality.

Is the purpose of sex our own pleasure or happiness?

1 Corinthians 13:5 says “Love … is not self-seeking.”

Ephesians 5:2 says “Walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.”

A few verses later in Ephesians 5:25-31, we are told “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. … For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

The Biblical purpose of sex is about giving ourselves up for our spouse. It is an attitude of “I just want you to be happy.”