WHY save sex for marriage?

If there were just one reason to save sex for marriage, this post would be easy to write. Oh, so easy to write. Bam…  In CAPS with an extra bold font I’d state the one reason. Expound, explore and elaborate on that one reason and that would be it.

But that’s not the case. There are so many reasons to wait for the commitment of marriage to share your body—and your very heart and soul—with another person.

Where do I begin? Which reason do I start with?

Begin… start with.

Ah ha. I think I’ve answered my own question. Umm, questions.

Here’s what I said in This Blog’s for You, the third post on “Waiting Matters…Because YOU Matter.”

“I believe that sex is an amazing gift God created for one man and one woman, committed to each other in marriage, to share for the rest of their lives.”

The first WHY of saving sex for marriage has to be this: GOD who created sex says that only when a man and a woman have made a lifetime commitment to each other, before GOD, their family and friends, should they allow themselves to engage in the pleasure of sex.

The creator—the guy who invented sex—said that.

Hold that very important thought for a moment.

We recently bought a new washing machine. A state-of-the-art laundry system no less, to replace our thirty-year-old trusty relic. As the old machine and the fancy new one have little in common, the necessity of keeping the new machine’s owner’s manual very near said machine became apparent five seconds after the installation guys left.

Yeah, right, you say. It’s a washing machine—no big deal. Throw in the dirty stuff, dump in some detergent, push the ON button. Later take out the clean stuff. Piece of cake, right?

So not right. It’s much more complicated than that.

And it since it was pretty expensive, we don’t want to you know, destroy it. The number of WARNING notices throughout the manual drove home the need to use the machine properly lest we find ourselves purchasing another laundry system in the not-too-distant future. Suffice it to say, we thoroughly consulted the owner’s manual and only after repeatedly instructing each family member on the proper usage of the new appliance did we rest easy.

It requires frequent “cleaning”—I guess so it can then “clean” our clothes. I’m constantly digging out that owner’s manual to be sure I use the techniques recommended by the manufacturer. You know, the creator of the machine, whom I must trust to know the best way to keep my new laundry system performing in peak condition.

Pretty much like the way the creator of sex knows what’s best when it comes to sex:  life-long, exclusive commitment to a husband or wife in marriage.

Maybe you have a difficult time with GOD and sex mentioned in the same sentence. Or paragraph even. I get that. Our society has so trounced on the sacredness of sex, dragging it through the gutter at every opportunity, to the point it’s easy to forget the whole thing was GOD’s idea from the beginning. If you have doubts about that statement, think about this. Sex is way too good to have occurred by accident—as in NO one created it, it just so happens that it works. I don’t think so.

Since the washing machine’s manufacturer says to clean the machine frequently, I’ll do it, because I want it to work well and last a long time.

If the creator of sex advises this intimate act be saved for marriage, shouldn’t we listen?

If decisions in the past led you away from abstinence, you can commit from today on to wait. I will say it until my dying breath:  it’s never too late to choose to save future sexual experiences for marriage. One sexual partner or a hundred—it doesn’t matter. Don’t keep repeating past mistakes. You can chart a new course. You can head in a new direction.

Whether you’ve always been committed to abstinence OR you’re venturing into new territory, remember the first reason to save sex–or future sexual experiences–for marriage comes from the creator himself.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more reasons–many more reasons–for saving sex. Drop me a line at waitingmatters@gmail.com with concerns and questions you’d like addressed here.