"What's love got to do with it"
Purity and chastity seem to be virtues that have gone out of fashion. The crisis of values has led many young people to see s*x as the center of their dating relationship. s*xually active men are considered "winners" and women "experienced," while someone who saves him or herself in chastity is taken to be a prude, s*xually incapable, or repressed by the Church. However, the reality is completely the opposite. Let’s take a look at 10 reasons to promote s*xual abstinence among our youth.
1. It promotes good communication in dating. When a couple practices abstinence, their communication is good because they are not just focused on pleasure but on the joy of sharing their views and experiences; moreover, their conversations are deeper. By contrast, physical intimacy is an easy way to relate, but it overshadows other forms of communication. It is a way of avoiding the real work involved in emotional intimacy, like talking about deep personal issues and working on the basic differences between the two of you.
2. The friendship in your relationship grows. Physical closeness can lead teenagers think they are emotionally close, when in fact they are not. A romantic relationship essentially consists in cultivating a friendship, and there is no friendship without conversation and shared interests. Personal conversation creates friendships and helps us to discover one another and get to know the other’s qualities and flaws. Some young people are driven by passion, and when they get to know each other more deeply, they end up disenchanted. And they did not get to know each other because they never got to be friends; instead, they were "friends with benefits."
3. There is a better relationship with both sets of parents. When men and women respect each other, their love matures and improves their friendship with both sets of parents. Generally, parents prefer their unmarried children to live lives of s*xual continence, and they are concerned if they know their children are s*xually active without being married. When a couple knows they have to hide their s*xual relations, their guilt and stress grow. Couples who decide to wait relate more amicably with their own parents and with their beloved’s parents.
4. You feel more free to question whether you should continue the relationship. s*xual relationships have the power to strongly unite two people, and can prolong an unhealthy relationship based on physical attraction or the need for security. A person may feel "trapped" in a relationship that they would like to end, but they can’t find their way out. A person who is not having s*x can more easily break the emotional bond to the other, because there has not been such powerful intimacy on the physical level. Moreover, if the woman gets pregnant, both partners do not feel as free to decide to get separated, get married, go to work, and so on.
5. It encourages generosity instead of selfishness. s*xual relations in dating can lead to selfishness and a focus on self-satisfaction. They can lead people to feel like they are competing with others whom their partner may find more attractive. It fosters insecurity and selfishness, because when you get s*xually intimate, the tendency is to ask for more and more.
6. There is less risk of physical or verbal abuse. s*x outside of marriage is associated with violence and other forms of abuse. For example, there is more than twice the physical aggression among couples living together without any commitment than among married couples. There is less jealousy and less selfishness in dating couples who decide to postpone s*xual activity than in those who are driven by passion.
- See more at:
http://aleteia.org/2014/05/23/10-good-reas...
Posted By: How May I Help You NC
Monday, January 9th 2017 at 12:37AM
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