Purity

The idea of purity, can be perceived in a variety of ways, mental purity, physical purity, religious purity etc. The type I would like to focus on today is both religious and physical. Nowadays the idea of keeping yourself pure and obtaining from sex until marriage is something we often get criticized for. Our society encourages sex before marriage and makes it seem "cool" or "fun" , "pleasure- filled" etc. What society fails to highlight however is all the baggage, pain , and regret that comes with it. Someones virginity used to be something that was honored and protected, and now its trampled and destroyed, given up simply because a person lacks self control and moral value or direction in there lives. For those of us that do still uphold this value, we get teased and disrespected, outcast-ed, why you ask? Because we refuse to conform to a society that has no values. We know what is right and we stand with it. It takes true courage to not blend in with our society, especially with so much pressure from the people around us. We as followers of Christ need to live our lives as example of what is right, we need to be the color white amidst all the grey. We need to be teachers to those who don't know and we need to be leaders to those whom follow. This idea of purity is not something that should be taken lightly, its a part of who we are and when the time comes to give that up to someone, it needs to be right for us and right in Gods eyes as well. The worlds ideas of standards are almost nonexistent but Gods standards are high. Why is this? Its not to make life hard for us or spoil our fun, its to protect us and to test us in the form of that when all odds are against us, we know our God is for us and we choose him! We choose the lifestyle he wants for us and with that comes joy and fulfillment instead of pain and hardship. I encourage you, and not just you girls but the guys as well, this is just as important for you as any girl out there. Yes girls get the brunt of this a lot of the time, but Gods standards are equal for both men an women and he expects the same from each of us. We all need to come back to the high standards he has set for us and we need to not just be Christians by Sunday but Christians by life. So I encourage you to take this idea of "purity" and guard it, protect it. When you get married someday and find your soulmate, that one person that God created for you and that he created you for them. When you find them, you will want to give them your best, so don't let your best be stained but let it stay pure and live the life God wants for you. We all have a choice to be of the world or of the kingdom, stick with the kingdom and we can fight together to make a difference in our world.