A Valentine’s Message

Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Ephesians 5:3

I don’t know if you celebrate Valentine’s Day or not. Lauren and I try to do something special, like go to dinner—I always wear a red dress shirt, which most people don’t seem to expect from me. While we enjoy it, many people consider this a day specifically created for florists, jewelers, and candy and card companies. I don’t think I could argue too much with that. After all, it is often a day when we spend money to let someone close to us know that they matter to us—something we can do, and should be doing, every day with our words and actions. What concerns me is how romance and love is marketed today, as strictly a physically charged relationship.

I’ve heard reports that there is an increase of abstinence among young people.^a I applaud that. The “old-fashioned” ideal of girls staying sexually pure so they can wear white on their wedding days is growing. What I’ve never quite understood is why there isn’t the same emphasis on boys remaining sexually pure. For some reason, there is a stigma on women who have a lot of sexual partners, but society seems to look at it differently when it comes to men. We’ve allowed ourselves to be fooled into thinking that it’s acceptable because “that’s what men do.”

I’ve seen it too many times with some of the players I have been around through my years in football, players who were not told that sex outside marriage has consequences. The proof? Many of them are fathers who didn’t plan to be at the time.

Valentine’s Day aside, television and films seem to fuel inappropriate and sensual messages designed to jeopardize the sexual purity of our children and young adults. I think we need to talk to them about the danger of these messages and help them see that God created them as sexual beings, with the best parameters to abide by.

Uncommon Key > Don’t buy into the world’s definition of love and romance. If you are sexually active outside of marriage, stop. Think seriously about what you are doing.

^a See, for example, Brittany Stevens, “Abstinence on the Rise among Teens, Young Adults,” Kansas State Collegian, April 12, 2011, http://www.kstatecollegian.com/news/abstinence-on-the-rise-among-teens-young-adults-1.2539474.

From the book