Doing the Right Thing: Promoting Sexual Abstinence

The news radio station that I listen to has a feature they call The Other Side of the News. It features unique, quirky, kinds of stories you would not normally hear, like the guy who created a picture of President Lincoln made entirely out of pennies. I found a story one day last week more than a little disturbing. It seems that a bridal couple somewhere in the northeast U.S. had their wedding reception interrupted when the pregnant bride's water broke. The bride encouraged the guests to "party-on" while she and her new husband went off the the hospital. Labor was induced and a healthy baby delivered. The bridal party later joined the new parents to continue the celebration.

One comment by the new husband-dad really troubled me. "We just wanted to do the right thing," he rationalized. In his mind their being married insured that the child would not be born out-of-wedlock. My reaction was, the right things would be to wait until after marriage to have intercourse in the first place. I know that is not the popular opinion these days but it is still the way God intended it to be.

It was ironic that I heard the story on the same day that the results of a new study on marriage was released. The report, issued by the National Center for Health Statistics, concluded that couples to live together before marriage and those that don't both have the same chance of a successful marriage. The report noted that two-thirds of couples now live together prior to being married. I think it's pretty safe to assume that those living together are sexually active.

All this points to the importance of communicating God's plan to our teens. It is never too early to talk about the issue. A friend commented to me last week that his ten year old daughter was showing signs of puberty. He wondered aloud whether he and his wife needed to raise the issue of sex and the feelings that accompany puberty. I convinced him it was. If protecting her virginity was a high priority, it was vital to draw the line in the sand as soon as possible. It's not the popular opinion but it is, and always will be, God's will.