Guilty Consciences

I was cruising http://www.answers.yahoo.com a bit. I do this for the same reason that I read people’s blogs – to see what people are talking about and what concerns they have. I was amazed at how many questions about sex are being asked by teenagers. Many of these questions involved the possibility of pregnancy and STDs. The tone of most of these was fear and paranoia.

Now you listen to me.

This fear indicates one thing – a guilty conscience. And this is a good thing.

I’ve encountered these kinds of questions not only on the internet, but in real life as well. A teen’s paranoia about getting pregnant or contracting a sexually transmitted disease is well-founded. But too often these teens bury their fears and numb them in order to quash their conscience, that thing implanted in us all that tells us that what we are doing is not right.

I wish that more people who listen to their consciences.

But our society has been indoctrinated with a sexually explicit attitude, and has been deceived into believing that it is normal to have sex before marriage. To many, the thought of abstinence hasn’t even crossed their mind.

Are you one of these? I am not only talking to teens now, but anyone who things that it’s okay to give your body away to someone you are not in a committed relationship with – and by this I mean the ultimate commitment of marriage.

The Bible says that only within marriage are two people to become one flesh (Genesis 2:24; see also 1 Corinthians 6:16). Only God’s design will bring true fulfillment. The rest is just counterfeit, or altogether empty.

Don’t believe the lies of the world.

Lucky 7?

Tomorrow is going to be an extremely busy day for weddings. The reason: the date is 7/7/07 and people think it’s lucky. Churches and halls have had this date completely booked for a year or more, and it had been almost impossible to find one that isn’t for months. Some people are content to just get married on this date, but others go to the extreme – they want to get married at precisely 7:00, have seven bridesmaids and seven groomsmen, have the bride wear the number seven somewhere on her person, and on and on it goes.

Now you listen to me.

In a day and age where half of all marriages end in divorce, it sounds like people will try anything to ensure their marriage will last. But you can pile up the lucky charms all you want. If you haven’t built a solid relationship your marriage is still going to fail. You’re going to have some serious problems in your marriage if you think picking a certain date for the wedding and other superstitious things are the key to marital bliss.

As the saying goes, marriage comes after the wedding. So instead of superstition, how about some premarital counseling to ensure you and your future spouse are compatible on the issues that matter. And how about building your relationship with your spouse on a solid foundation. Physical attraction and sex will not give you a strong marriage if that’s all you’ve based your relationship on. A love of baseball or hockey or beer drinking will not give you a strong marriage if that is the sole common ground you have built your relationship upon. A pure, strong and true spiritual foundation is what builds a strong marriage.

But does anybody even think about asking God to enter their marriages anymore? Or are they too busy picking out flower arrangements – and booking the church?