Posted on 06/19/2007 9:43:42 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback
Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.
For the past two days, weve talked about how Christians can help their kids navigate the spiritual and sexual minefield they each face. But what happens when these kids arent kids any more?
Christian parents tend to think, My kid is a good kid and wouldnt have premarital sex. Wrong, says Laura Sessions Stepp, author of Unhooked. From what she saw, nice girls, when they didnt have strong family and church support, were more apt to fall prey to the hookup culture all around us. Many of them couldnt say no out of a fear of seeming rude or unkind!
Even with kids who take abstinence pledges, as Hanna Rosin wrote in Slate, Follow-up surveys show that at best, pledges delayed premarital sex by 18 months. Of course, the longer the delay, the fewer the STDs and unwed pregnancies, but delaying is a far cry from the message of Gods Word and from what weve been trying to teach. We want them not just to be physically healthy, but spiritually and emotionally as well.
Heres one major factor that the Church has ignored, to our kids peril: the fact that theyll likely be single much longer than we were. As Jennifer Marshall of the Heritage Foundation points out in her new book, Now and Not Yet: Making Sense of Single Life in the Twenty-First Century, Our culture in general, and the Christian subculture in particular, fosters in young women a desire for marriage and the presumption that marriage will be a part of life sooner rather than later. But reality regularly departs from the script. Almost six out of ten women today are not married by age twenty-five. Three out of ten are not married by age thirty.
We can no longer simply coach preteens and teenagers on abstinence techniques and think its enough. Young Christians today will reach adulthood, find themselves single for longer than they expected, and face a sudden dearth of teaching and encouragement from the Church that will help them adjust to what Marshall calls that unexpected place.
With little understanding or support from Christians, and next to none from the culture, its no wonder teens and young adults struggleand often start rationalizing disobedience to God. Thats why our support cant be a one-time deal, or something that fades as they grow older. We need a new perspective: instead of teaching our kids, Youll just need to practice this discipline for a few years, we need to instill in them habits of a long road of obedience, in this and all other aspects of life. We need to provide real guidance and mentoring for our own kids and for singles in the churches around us.
I would recommend sharing copies of Marshalls book, Now and Not Yet, a study of several Christian singles of various ages who are learning about discipline and contentment where God has placed them. And by the way, this discipline of a long road of obedience is a valuable lesson not just for singles, but for all of us.
If anyone wants on or off my Chuck Colson/BreakPoint Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
BreakPoint/Chuck Colson Ping!
If anyone wants on or off my Chuck Colson/BreakPoint Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
Ping!
“Almost six out of ten women today are not married by age twenty-five. Three out of ten are not married by age thirty.
Many reasons endemic to this.
Welfare
Feminism
The pill
Men are afraid to commit for above reasons
Fear of failure.....self fulfilling prophesy
Our perverse culture
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.