Chastity

Yeah, I know he or she told you that they love you - and we all need to be loved.  But true love always acts in the best interest of the beloved.  Anything else is just plain lust.

So, is it really in your or your friend's best interest to be involved sexually outside of a biblical marital commitment?  He or she is your friend, right?

• the need to put chemicals or contraptions in your body or to have surgery to prevent pregnancy

Using the pill, Depo-Provera, Norplant? Check out the information from Pharmacists for Life on the impact of various birth control methods.

• pregnancy 
• abortion

Is it easy?  Nope!  
Is it worth it?  Absolutely!

Because the main reason is that YOU are worth it!

And no one has the right to make you feel like you're not.  

It's OK to say "No."  And anyone who pressures you to do differently is not your friend.  

So, make a commitment to yourself, those you love now, and those you may love in the future.  Make a pledge of chastity now? 

It is never too late to turn the corner and head in a better direction.  

Know what else? You owe it to yourself to do so.

In his book on Sexual Purity, Tony Evans says:

Sex is like an atom.  Reduce it to its base elements, and you've got a problem the size of Hiroshima. You end up with lots of destruction and fallout but no joy. Clearly, this misuse of sex under the direction of the evil one is decimating our society. Sex is God's idea, and therefore, it is good. But like anything else that God makes, when people get their hands on it and redefine it according to their own agenda, what is good becomes destructive. What was created in heaven becomes a mixture from hell.

A "mixture from hell" is an excellent term for it. Just look at where we're at: men and women, many of whom have been sexually molested, seeking love in all the wrong places; men thinking manhood is merely the ability to have sexual intercourse; children losing their innocence at younger and younger ages; an epidemic of abortions and sexually-transmitted diseases; children suffering from the lack of parents who are in committed, life-long marital relationships; and a proliferation of pornography, especially through the internet.

Pope John Paul II has said that the problem with pornography is not that it shows too much, but that it shows too little -- it reduces men and women to the sum of their body parts.

And this is just too sad. For we are one unit -- body, mind, and soul -- made in the image and likeness of God.  

But many feel this image has been tarnished beyond repair. Many feel disconnected from their other parts and don't know how to get it all back together.  Many feel disconnected from God.

If you are among the many, please know that all is not lost.

For …

God loves you!
He always has.
He always will.
There is nothing you can say or do
That will every take away his love for you.

Does this mean you can keep doing what you've been doing 'cause God will love you anyway?  Nope!

Does God demand a change of heart and a turning away from evil?  Absolutely!  

His great love for you demands it.

What will your response be to His outpouring of love for you?

*Courage is a support group for men and women with homosexual inclinations, dedicated to attaining chastity, in accord with the magisterium's teaching on homosexuality.