e never cohabited versus those who have engaged in premarital activity. If the family trends of recent decades are extended into the future, the result will not only be a growing uncertainty within marriage, but the gradual elimination of marriage in favor of casual liaisons.If parents are open with their children from an early age, and speak to them about all aspects of sex, the temptation to rebel might be lessened. The children will grow up understanding that sex is not a taboo topic, but rather an act of physical commitment between two responsible adults. With this idea, the children will wait for the right time and right person, and think twice before making an irreversible decision. My parents were very open and honest with me about sex. They explained all the repercussions, both physically and emotionally. While although understandably curious, I realize that the gift of sex is not to be taken lightly. There are three good and psychologically, if not spiritually, valid reasons for maintaining sexual purity before marriage. First, intimacy suggests a merging of one plus another into a single union Thus sex without marriage and the lifetime promise of physical, spiritual, and emotional support violates this united relationship. Second, intimacy suggests a level of personal, physical, spiritual, and psychological commitment that only a marriage can provide. And third, intimacy suggests a type of love, the kind of good and self-giving love, not a type of love that wells up from our inner lusts and biological desires. In the end, there is nothing wrong with the desires we feel -- indeed, we couldn't stop them if we wanted to. But sex wasn't created to be a recreational outlet for the uninitiated, but the fruit of the promise of a lifetime's commitment of one to another. And with all the baggage of shame society can lo...
