PURITY DEDICATION

By Jim Foy, 09 October, 2007

PURITY DEDICATION<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

My second daughter asked me to send my grandson a letter for his Purity Celebration. She asked that it particularly address sexual purity and godly living; that it be suitable to follow during his teen years, and to keep for life. Following is my guide to my grandson. I share it with you so you can adapt it, alter it, & personalize it for your children or grandchildren. I'll be redoing it to give each of my eleven grandchildren at the appropriate time. I trust our children will overcome the evil one by drawing near to God and by dedicating themselves to yield to His guidance.

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To: Occasion:

Congratulations on reaching this exciting milestone in your life. You are an official teenager twixt 12 & 20 a very important time. These will be years of fun, curiosity, discovery, challenges, victories, losses, hurts, surviving, learning life lessons, many "firsts," many thrills, impatience over small tedious stuff, big disappointments over seemingly major stuff, finding out puppy love is real to the puppy and that some puppies turn into real dogs, being angry because some of your prayers weren't answered "yes" then being glad later that "no" was the better answer, getting to drive, getting a car, learning the responsibility and reward of independence, hard work, & more

You are very fortunate! You have excellent parents, a good church, good health, are intelligent, handsome, athletic, speak and sing well, and know God. My desire is that you know God even better especially now. Knowing God is not to be first in your life or top on your list; it is to surround your entire life & to control your total list. God is the circle of our life & our life is to be lived inside God: God's control of attitude, love, thinking, motives, decisions, etc. all of it.

God made you. The Creator knows what is best for you. He can direct you to good life to really LIVE. I don't mean thrills or goose bumps or selfish gratifications. I mean satisfying, enduring, meaningful life without major damages. Going God's way is the best way even when it doesn't seem so. Obeying God leads to a life of no huge regrets. Obeying sin, self & society leads to hurts & regrets. Even friends can lead us badly. Stuff that looks so fun and thrilling will later attack you inside and outside, physically and mentally, for this life and the next. God keeps us from the evil excitement in order to keep us from the resulting pain and problems; and to keep us for the much better good that He knows will be true: contentment, joy, health, genuine friendships that last, etc. The Creator knows best.

Our culture revolves around self-centered desires & instant gratification. Sex is the big lure. Sexual images sell products, entertainment, & self image. Everybody is doing it; it's normal, expected, thrilling, yet no big deal & no commitment; so indulge yourself regardless of who gets hurt. Join in the fun right now. BUT know this for sure: sexually transmitted diseases infect more people today in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />US then ever before there is no safe illicit sex. More drugs are sold now then ever before to try in vain to relieve the symptoms of those sicknesses. More people's minds are messed up & confused then ever before due to violating God's instructions in sexual relations. What God designed to be marital bonding & a marriage pleasure, is now trivialized as a physical toy & a cheap thrill for the moment (a conquest & a boast) leading to psychological and physical pain. Just look at Hollywood sin's display and Satan's billboard. Beautiful, talented, likable people whose lives are destroyed by booze, drugs (legal and illegal), sexual waste, love of money, a party attitude, love of self, love of fame & popularity. Yet with all that, their lives are miserable failures. Don't fall into that trap baited by sex and money. Sin laughs and promises the freedom to be wild. Drenched by your tears it delivers the slavery of guilt or regret or fear; it entraps in wrong relationships; it imprisons some to diseases. Satan allures with excitement, and brings misery. God says, Bind yourself to me, and I will set you free from guilt, regret, those diseases, bad relationships, and fear. God's plan will prove good, desirable, & ideal IF you follow it. Draw near to God and resist the devil. Be God's advertisement.

If you follow God's plan, He has devised the sexual drive to be the most fulfilling and exciting physical joy for your special wedding night for your bride and you to delight in together. God made it wonderful & good by design. The world ruins it: it loses meaning, it becomes dangerous, it is selfish, it has regrets even children of loose-living shallow people can be born with disease from their parents. How sad! How stupid & unnecessary. God's way is not dangerous (one man & one woman for life), has greater meaning & bonding, is unselfish as a man & woman please each other, is trusting, and has no regrets no guilt and remorse. God's way is far superior. Sometimes it does not seem to be, but that is part of living in faith. Believe me, believe the Bible: God knows best.

So, here is my challenge & my recipe for real success. Go God's way. Follow God's operating manual the Bible. Obey godly instructions. Trust God with your eyes & your drives. Your eyes see things and like what they see; your drives say Get that now. Your eyes and drives are good God made them. Right then, allow God to enable you to control them and direct them for the right time and place and person. Always just trust & obey God. Be honest, be a genuine friend by living love, be forgiving, be kind, be real (genuine, not phony), be helpful, seek God, read God's Book, attend a good church, make friends of people who will help in these goals. And, keep yourself physically, sexually, for the one special girl whom you will make your bride & your wife. She'll be glad you did, and so will you. The world will say you are a fool, but your wife and children will say you are a great and wonderful husband and dad. God as Judge will say you are wise; well done, enter eternally into My joy as a Christian family.

All this is only possible with God's help. Make this your prayer:
God, help my eyes to see beauty without marring it; let my touch be kind and loving while pure; my mind to think wholesome thoughts, and not dwell on tainted ideas; my heart to remain pure not puerile; my feet not to go places I should avoid, and to run quickly from temptations; and help my will to be disciplined to do Your will. Guide me to find friends with the same dedication. Amen.

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Rom 12:1,2; 1 Cor 6: 19,20
I beg you because of God's grace, give yourself as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God it's logical to serve God. Don't look like Satan's people but let God make you to look like Jesus by renovating your thinking. Then you will demonstrate that God's will is good, desirable, and complete... Realize that God has purchased you, lives within you, and you don't belong to yourself. So live to praise & glorify God in your body and spirit.