THE PROMISE OF PURITY OR HALF-RIPENED APPLES AND OTHER THOUGHTS

If you were offered two apples, one half-ripened and the other fully ripened from the same tree, which fruit would you prefer?  Of course the answer appears easy: you would want the fully-ripe apple. But what if you had to wait longer for the second apple to ripen?  What if you had to wait for a considerable time?  Would you have the patience to wait even when the first apple is available and offered to you?

Sexuality could be likened to these two apples.  Although it sometimes appears forbidden, sexuality is not a forbidden fruit: it is a fruit that we must wait for, until we are legally married as husband and wife.  Many times we will be offered, if not tempted, to partake of the half-ripe apple. The world believes that you should taste the half-ripened apple before you get married so you will know if the fruit is desirable and the feelings are mutual. 

Isn’t it logical to assume that those who taste a half-ripened apple before marriage are often disappointed?  There is no guarantee that this is always the case, but those who try to test and see if there is chemistry too early, may have a half-ripened, empty experience. Perhaps they even assume, because it was an empty experience, that there was something wrong with the relationship or something wrong with the other person, or that the chemistry wasn’t there.  Or, like a one night stand, the empty experience proves that while chemistry may have been there for a moment, the chemistry was fleeting and didn’t last. 

Perhaps the greater problem in this isn’t that there isn’t chemistry or a connection, but that the connection is being attempted too early.  Isn’t it logical to assume that, although biological, sex before marriage isn’t in harmony with truth and with the Lord’s admonition that passions and appetites should be reserved within the bounds the Lord has set?    And without truth, life is empty, and there can be no fullness of joy.

When we violate our chastity and our virtue we trade love for lust.

I am perplexed by how so many people around me are blotting out and killing their consciences and the very moral compass that is the only way they can tell right from wrong.    

Individualism fosters moral relativism which breeds moral, sexual, and spiritual rebellion.

Integrity is a true reflection of our character and our conscience.

Wishing things turned out differently is really not an option. Ask yourself this question: Do I want things as they once were, or do I want things as they are now.  Therein lies the answer.

Sometimes love skips along like a skipping stone, and like many relationships, the heart stops skipping and the love doesn’t last.  Each stone is different. Most skip once or twice.  Searching for love is like searching for the right skipping stone, but once you have found it, and believe in it, it has the potential to skip on and last for eternity.

Bless mothers who live in such a way as to set an example of purity and virtue for their sweet, innocent, virtuous girls, bringing peace and giving hope that virtue and honesty and holiness are the purest way to happiness.

How much our Father in Heaven loves us! May His kind and wise influence guide and direct our lives through the light and love of His Only Begotten Son.