Part 7 of the “Purity” series: Pregnancy before marriage?
Dear younger me,
You are ingrained through friends, family, media, school, etc. that the only way to get pregnant is to have sex. (Okay, unless you go and pay for all the medical technology, but I’m not taking about that here.) On the flip side, it has been embedded in your mind that the only way to NOT get pregnant is to NOT have sex. True!
I have had friends who got pregnant while on the pill or the slip of another form of “protection”. Listen, the only true way to not get pregnant, and to not contract any sexual disease as well, is to NOT have sex.
Let me tell you a little story. My (our) parents’ anniversary was always really close to my birthday. I’d do the calculations and ask questions, but my parents always denied that they got pregnant before marriage.
Later in life, when I was the age of sexual promiscuity, the truth was told. I (you) are a product of our parents sexual lust for one another before even thinking of marriage. They were Christians, but they gave into their flesh.
I thank them and God that they did not choose to abort me. They chose life. They chose me. Yay!
They have told me of the struggles they had in their young marriage. Their stories encouraged me to not to want to have to go through what they did.
Mom and dad totally gave their lives to Christ, and raised me and my siblings in church.
Their true story put fear in me when it came time to dating. I did NOT want to get pregnant before marriage.
So this letter is in turn not a story about what happens to you, but what happened and you were the result of.
Mom and Dad’s marriage was a success, but that is not the statistical norm. Through God’s grace, fear, and love they survived.
In 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 we read, “Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”
My folks always told me that their actions were not just a physical thing, but in the end it was totally a spiritual, mental, and emotional experience with real consequences.
So I want to encourage you, like “our” parents did me, to stay pure. Don’t give in to the desires of your flesh, but stay close and true to God and the desires He puts on your heart. Christ is IN you! When you use your body for anything other than glorifying Him, you are sinning against Him while He is within you. Ugh!
So, I guess besides the fear of God in me, I choose to remain a virgin until marriage because I fear of getting pregnant. It only takes one time…just like with mom and dad. Once!
Sincerely,
Your older self
If you find yourself in and unwanted/surprise/ooops with-child situation, PLEASE visit a pregnancy care center like: http://www.plantcitypregnancycenter.org/
If you want to know a biblical answer to the question, “If a couple gets pregnant before marriage do they have to get married?”, please check out: http://www.gotquestions.org/pregnant-married.html
If you are young and want to get more information of abstinence, check out: http://www.whatisimpact.com/
