Mine to give or another's to deliver?
The subject of saving ourselves for marriage has been on my mind lately, probably because my sons are growing up so fast.
There are two conflicting views about premarital sex—protection or abstinence. But, what if neither was the complete answer to the dilemma?
What if intimacy was like holding someone else’s money?
I mean, Jesus tells men to be careful not to even look at a woman lustfully. Contextually speaking, He said that because he was placing a hedge around the instruction from God to avoid adultery.
But what if God didn’t give my intimacy to me? What if God gave me intimacy to hold…intimacy that actually belongs to another person? What if saying, “I’m saving myself for the person I marry” is actually not true? What if what I’m saving is not mine at all?
Think about it. Is it possible that God gave intimacy to Jonathan Paul Gainey to keep on the day I was conceived until the day I meet the person that I am to deliver it to, once and for all, and on our wedding night I gave Staci the affection that belonged to her all along?
Could it be that when I kissed other girls as a teenager that I was actually giving away something that wasn’t mine to give and taking from another that which wasn’t hers to give? There are a lot of people who don't really consider kissing that much of a sensual act, but what about all of the more intimate things that young people do when their passions get away from them and they are alone?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if young children were no longer considering their sexual desires as personal belongings to be exchanged with whomever he or she wanted, when it "feels right?"
Wouldn’t it be beautiful, if our sensuality and sexual pleasures were held and guarded as priceless objects, belonging to someone else, who would someday come to receive his or her possessions?
What if wedding nights were filled with two people who have been carrying incredibly valuable, fragile packages for years, waiting to be delivered to the owner on that very day when the two are joined as one?''
And what if, for those who do not marry, the passions and desires of a person were symbolically, yet literally preserved as the possessions of God himself?
Forever learning,
Johnny
6 comments:
those are great thoughts and points. ...and what a great example: intimacy is like holding someone else's money...and we should be saving it for them, not squandering it away.
That is beautifully put.
Johnny-
You are the MAN. I love reading your blogs.
Thank you for your teaching.
Daniel
Great post . . . I’ll use that illustration sometime.
To add to your thoughts . . . the purpose of dating is to discover whether or not he/she is “the one.” If and/or when we discover that the person we are dating isn’t the person God is calling us to then the dating relationship needs to end . . . or else, as you put it, we could deliver the “package” to the wrong person. ;-)
Blessings,
You're right Bret.
I pray for my children day and night, asking God to spare them of the draining ritual that is teenage, mock-marriage. Those relationships cause so much pain to teenagers and they have no idea what they are putting themselves and otehrs through as they experiment with their hearts and lives.
Good thing I knew who I wanted to marry when I was 7. Okay, maybe 14. I was definitely luck to be spared from all that dating crap and hurt feelings that can be so ridiculous and heart breaking... in the back of my head I knew no other guy I talked to could compare to my Tilden...
There's lots of praying to be done for the teenagers that we come in contact with... if only they could live their lives with the knowledge that we adults have now!
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