This weekend we were listening to the Taylor Swift Song, Picture to Burn and I was heartened by this line,
"... if you come around here saying sorry to me, my daddy's gonna show you how sorry you'll be!"
and then the chorus:
"if you're missing me,
you'd better keep it to yourself
cause coming back around here
would be bad for your health..."
and then I thought back to the part of Wendy's Shalit's first book, "A Return to Modesty" (a must read for every parent of a teenage daughter)where she quotes a paragraph from Glamour magazine, June 1998, by a young man who has his girlfriend's father drive them to a hotel, he wrote, "Prepared to trust me with his only daughter but not with his brand new Volvo, he shook the very foundations of parental propriety by offering to drive us to the hotel."
Then I guess it's not surprising that Drudge has a developing story about the fact that 25% of all teenage girls have a sexually transmitted disease.
And it seems like parents have abandoned any thought of protecting their teenage daughters. Because I guess it's not cool. And you definitely won't be a yummy mummy if you try to stand in the way of what your teenagers want, or you think they want.
And why don't I live in Victorian times?
If I had to give ten reasons why a teenage girl should not become sexually active I would start by saying
1. It's a mortal sin. And you will go to hell. Now I know this only applies to those of use who still believe in sin, self control and hell. We are a small but stubborn group.
2. Don't let yourself be taken advantage of by someone who does not care about you. Because if he did care about you he would marry you first. Like the chapter in Josh Harris' book, "I Kissed Dating Goodbye"- "ready for the sack but not for the sacrament".
3. Don't open yourself up to disease
4. Don't open yourself up to heartbreak
5. Enjoy the protection of propriety. You likely will not see it modeled among your peers but you have read Jane Austen so you know what it's all about.
6. Don't have a child when you are still a child. 50% of women who attempt abortion were using birth control at the time of conception. This is Planned Parenthood's own statistic. If you have sex you will have a baby, eventually.
7. Don't put yourself in the painful position of giving a child up for adoption
8. Don't distract yourself from your education
9. Don't miss the fun of being young, being carefree and a having a pure courtship
10. Believe that you are special and should save yourself for someone who is deserving of you. Your future husband.
4 comments:
What a great piece! I love that you put the first reason to be chaste FIRST!So often the emphasis is on 'health issues' and 'birth contro' management! Would that those in the pulpits(at least they USED to be in pulpits!) would emphasize first reasons first as you did! Well done! I am saving this list!
Confess your sins online at: http://iconfessmyself.blogspot.com
Hi! These are very important things you write about in your post. But I do believe we extend beyond our scope of understanding when we say who *will* go to hell. It is not so simple as that. The Church does not say who has gone or who will go to hell. Yes, I am aware of the nature of mortal sins, but at the same time God's mercy is so very wide...shouldn't we strive to demonstrate that kind of mercy in our own lives?...but keep up the good work and have a blessed Lent and Easter. peace.
Thank you for this list! I am printing it off for future reference.
Now for another Anonymous: If we do not believe that certain sins are mortal, how can we possibly be OPEN to God's mercy? Yes he is merciful and willing to give it, provided that we first know we have sinned and ask for his forgiveness. Going by what you said we can do anything and it won't matter because God will forgive us as soon as the deed is done.....carpe diem, right? As long as you are happy, right? I bet that murder is a worse sin in your eyes than sex outside of marriage, yet if you apply the carpe diem, as long as it makes you happy logic, it really isn't. If you believe in the existence of Heaven and consequently Hell, then why would you risk the beauty and joys of Heaven on the whims of this world, on losing yourself to a man who does not have your interests at heart? Why risk the consequence of spending eternity with Master of Deceit?
Thankfully, God is most merciful, but I would rather my children have a complete understanding of exactly how their very soul is put at risk every day by the temptations of the world than by risking their eternal happiness on something that won't last and WON'T help them achieve the most worthy of all goals: living with Christ for all eternity in Heaven.
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