What's the Meaning of Sex?
Sex is like body language. It communicates a love between two people that is total, faithful, fruitful, and free.
Total: Sex is an entire gift of one person to another, without holding anything back.
Faithful: Sex is meant to be shared with one person in marriage.
Fruitful: Sex is meant to be open to the gift of new life. This love is so incredible that it can actually result in a third person - a baby!
Free: Sex is meant to be given freely, not forced or coerced, or the result of too much alcohol.
The only place where these four aspects of sex are protected is within marriage. Only in marriage do two people commit themselves to each other, before God, to love each other totally, faithfully, fruitfully and freely. That's why studies have shown that married couples report having the best sex! Imagine the security of knowing that your partner loves you completely and has legally and morally promised to be with you forever.
Chastity?
Chastity is the virtue of saving all sexual activity until marriage and staying faithful to your spouse within marriage. It frees you from being used as an object and allows you to truly love and be loved.
What's the Big Deal, Anyway?
When the media talks about sex, they show us that “it's no big deal” - just something that we do or can enjoy whenever we want to without experiencing any consequences. Is this a reality or a fantasy?
- 1 out of 2 sexually active single people will contract an STD by the time that they turn 25.1
- Over 820,000 teens become pregnant each year in the U.S. 2
- Sexually active teens are more likely to suffer from depression. 3
- 77% of teen girls and 60% of teen boys who have been sexually active regret it. 4
- 61% of teen sexual relationships end within 3 months, and 80% end within 6 months. 5
- When a man is married as a virgin, his divorce rate is 63% lower than a non-virgin. For women, it's 76% lower. 6
YOU are worth waiting for!
You deserve to be loved totally by another person who commits to you for a lifetime in marriage.
(1). Cates JR, Herndon NL, Schulz SL, Darroch JE. (2004). Our voices, our lives, our futures: Youth and sexually transmitted diseases. Chapel Hill, N.C: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
(2). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National and state-specified pregnancy rates among adolescents, United States, 1995 – 1997. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2000; 49:605-11.
(3). www.heritage.org/research/family/cda0304.cfm.
(4). America's Adults and Teens Sound Off About Teen Pregnancy: An Annual National Survey, National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy – December 16, 2003.
(5). “Teen Sexual Abstinence and Academic Achievement,” by Robert Rector and Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., Conference Paper, October 27, 2005.
(6). Edward O. Laumann, et al., The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 503.