Dear Christian Teens: Do you Know the Truth About Purity?

Dear Christian teens,

Even though I don't yet have teens of my own, I have the privilege of working with some of you at church and I love you as if you were my own.

I came across an article today that really bothered me.  I realized just how loudly unbiblical messages are being shouted at you, and I want to counteract that with the truth.

A mother was writing about why she keeps a giant box of condoms available to her teenagers.  She thinks it's sweet and all when a teenager makes a promise that he will keep himself (or herself) pure, but she knows what's really going to happen.  She'd rather her teens be “protected” when they inevitably give in to the lust burning within them, so she gives her teens and their friends condoms as a “back-up plan” for when they just can't keep that purity vow.

And what bothered me all the more was to see mother after mother commenting in hearty agreement.  “That's right!  I'd rather my child wait until they're married, but since I know they won't I want to make sure they're protected!”

Don't listen to that garbage, dear teenager.

The world says you're not capable of having any self-control.  The world says that when you make a promise there's no way you'll keep it.

But God says differently.

• God says that young people can be an example of Godly living, and He even specifically mentions the area of purity! Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. I Timothy 4:12
  

• When Daniel was taken as a captive to Babylon and commanded to eat the king's meat that had been offered to idols, he made a promise to God and to himself that he would not defile himself with the king's meat.  He counted the cost and determined that he would do right no matter the cost.  And he knew very well that the price would be far more than being made fun of by his friends or “missing out” on indulging his flesh.  The cost for Daniel could likely have been death.  But he did what he had determined to do – and he was only a teen!

• When Nebuchadnezzar made a giant statue of himself and commanded everyone to bow to it, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused.  Three teenagers were able and willing to face certain death because they loved and served the God of the Bible.  The world says it's impossible for teens to do right, but these three Hebrew boys prove that you can do right.  Your faith can be just as strong as that of any adult.

• Joseph was only 17 when he was taken to Egypt and sold to Potiphar.  He would have been at the prime age for physical desires to be their strongest when Potiphar's wife repeatedly tried to coerce him to lie with her.  His answer?  “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”  He refused, and when she tried to force him he ran from the temptation!
  

Young people, you can do right!

The world says it's impossible to keep yourself pure – that you might as well just give up before you start.

The world says you need to be taught “safe sex” because abstinence is impossible.

Don't listen to those lies!  Listen to God.  Study his Word and then choose to obey it through the power of the Holy Spirit.