Musings & Marginal Madness: The Holidays, Relationships, Chastity, and Redemption

            My apologies for not writing in so long, the holidays are always a busy time for me, I have a love-hate relationship with them, and this year was especially chaotic.  Giving gifts is my primary love language and I always try to put a great deal of thought and effort into each present.  (I enjoy crafts, so the majority of my gifts are usually handmade.)  Unfortunately, this year I was not as proactive with my Christmas preparations and so have spent the last few months being overwhelmed while trying to figure out the ideal gifts for my family and friends. 
             Additionally, as of about two months ago, I have a boyfriend.  I’m from a conservative Christian background, and my depression has the side-effect of me being less hormonal than many of my peers, so this is my first serious boyfriend.  I realize that is rather surprising, but I was taught that dating was a precursor to marriage, so I’ve always been rather serious and pragmatic about the matter.
            However, I’ve realized recently that this mindset has one major shortcoming.  In my mind, there’s casual dating where you go on dates with different people to decide if you’re interested in developing something more with any of them.  Then there’s exclusive dating, an engagement, and marriage.  A marriage involves the nitty-gritty parts of daily life, an engagement entails planning necessary details for your future life and worrying about flowers and place settings, but I’ve realized, I have very little idea what the purpose of a dating couple is.  I understand that it is to further the relationship and get to know each other, but how is that accomplished?
To be clear, when I say I’m from a conservative Christian background I mean, I believe in the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, and that sexual relations should be reserved for your spouse after marriage.  That may seem old-fashioned, but it’s not about trends or what society deems acceptable or not, it’s about God.  Now I want to be equally clear that just because this is my belief, I do not expect everyone to feel the same way.  I am free to believe as I will. I respect the right of others to believe as they will and ask that they extend the same courtesy to me.  I know that the world is far from ideal and I am not naïve enough to believe otherwise. 
I also want to say, that while I do believe that God desires for us to reserve physical intimacy for our spouse, I know that is not always or even often, the reality.  However, I do not believe that God is cruel.  Redemption is real and change is possible. In Isaiah 1:18 it says, “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be a white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." God, our Heavenly Father, desires for us to come unto Him and He has provided the way for us to do so.  That’s part of what I love so much about the holidays, and Christmas specifically.  They’re about gratitude, love, hope, and progress.  At the heart of all these celebrations is Christ and His Mission, “for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:16-17).

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