My Body

By Brian Mitchell        A young lady, a senior in High School, once shared the following statement with her Sunday morning Bible class. “When we date, we start giving each other gifts, like candy and flowers. When a couple gets engaged, they give more special things—like a diamond and other personal things. However, the most personal gift I can ever give is myself. When I marry I want to give my husband the best that I have—I want to give him myself, my whole self as completely as I can.”     If only there were more young people like this young woman in the world today. When it came to keeping herself pure until marriage, this young woman had it right. This does not mean that everyone would agree with her sentiment. When it comes to sexual beliefs and practices in our society, it is amazing how far removed from biblical reality many of them are. What is especially alarming is the continued decrease in the age of those who are sexually active.     Five years ago, the American Journal of Sociology, published the results of a study conducted among 832 High School students. 573 of those students confessed to having at least one sexual encounter in the last year. There were 288 students involved in a network of encounters among one another. 31% of girls had gotten pregnant at least once before turning 20.     According to a CDC report from 2005 nearly 10% of high school students surveyed admitted to having a sexual relationship before the age of 13. There are a reported 19 million new cases of STDS reported each year and half of those occur in individuals age 15-24. What is truly sad is the fact that 40% of those surveyed believed that the pill protected them from such diseases.     If you are a parent or grandparent, I hope these numbers scare you, and they should. I know that this kind of subject is not very popular among us. But although this might be an uncomfortable subject, the statistics don’t lie. The truth is the truth and thus we must talk about sex and other uncomfortable subjects if we are to honor God.     Are there any here struggling with sexual temptations? I don’t know of any for certain but the statistics tell me I would be foolish to believe otherwise. And even if none here are struggling with this, as the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Thus, we need to talk about such issues before they become issues rather than after they do. We can do something about a problem before it happens, we can just pick up the pieces after it does. Which sounds better to you?

- Brian Mitchell serves as a minister with the Jackson Church of Christ in Jackson, MO. He may be contacted through the congregation's website at https://www.jacksonchurchofchrist.net