Dare to say it!

I bought an old "Good Housekeeping" magazine for $8. I saw it when I was looking through a pile of magazines at an antique store in the beautiful, historic, city of Savannah, Georgia. What caught my attention most about this "secular" magazine was the title of one of the articles, "Dare to say it out loud: "Unchastity is a sin!"" I thought this was a unique article to be advertised on the front of a magazine considering today it is not uncommon to find articles titled, "12 ways to satisfy him in bed," on the cover.

On the four hour drive home from Savannah, I flipped through the magazine as my friend drove. I would stop on pages with advertisement about how to get rid of "infectious dandruff that even your children are not immune to" by using Listerine, and laugh at the thought of having minty fresh hair. My friend soon reminded me of the article about unchastity and it wasn't long before the weight of the article had it's affect.

The article starts out addressing how to approach the topic of chastity with daughters because the author of the article, Phyllis McGinley, is a mother of three daughters. There is so much wisdom in this article, I wish I could share the whole article with you. But here are a few of my favorite excerpts:

"Our daughters have known for a long time just how babies are born, and have accepted, we hope, their theoretical knowledge of sex gravely and sweetly. But the tides of spring run strong. Home ties are breaking off, and to the confusion of new voices and circumstances and the competition for popularity will be added the pulse of their own blood. Curiosity, even, will have its urgent pull."

"...I have also thought about the problem deeply, and I know what I, for one, shall do. It's a very iconoclastic thing; it has not been mentioned at all in any of the dozens of pamphlets and tomes I have dipped into. But it seems sanest. I shall remind my daughters simply that there is such a thing as right and such a thing as wrong. I shall commit the dreadful heresy of talking about sin."

"...to tell them that they must withstand temptations because temptations are merely urges toward immature behavior, is to give them stones when they pant for bread. It is to weaken the muscles of their characters."

""But what about guilt?" ask my opponents. "When the young believe in sin, they must necessarily feel guilty if they commit it. Is not that destructive?" From my fallible viewpoint, I do not think so. For sin implies forgiveness. One who has done a wrong can be sorry and recover. If he is generous enough, he can even forgive himself. But how does one go about forgiving oneself for a lapse in taste or a gaucheries?"

"So what in the end shall I tell my daughters about chastity before marriage? of course, I shall be sensible and point out the ordinary social penalties attached to any other conduct...But I shall also say that love is never merely a biological act but one of the few miracles left on earth, and that to use it cheaply is a sin. In fact that is what I have already told them."

There are so many good quotes in this article but those are a few of the ones that stood out to me. Sadly, I think it is hard for us to often call things sin that are sin because we don't understand forgiveness and that we do not having condemnation in Christ. I have so many more thoughts on this but I do not want to lengthen this post any more. Please leave your feedback.