‘Tis the season for sappy movies. A friend posted that she had tried to watch them and just found them laughable. This godly woman knows what real love is. She and her husband have a highly successful marriage. I suspect she innately rejects the falsehood perpetuating the world’s lie about love.
My many years of walking with the Lord produces habits that insulate me from much of the world. In this season of rest and healing, I am exploring some opportunities to learn more about attitudes of a younger generation about relationships. My findings are eye opening.
Today’s views seem to reflect an attitude about love founded in popular culture, beginning years ago in pop love songs, and continuing in all forms of entertainment today. I see a mistaken belief that the love of the right person can save someone and change them into a person worthy of love and being able to love in return. In addition, the intrinsic value of physical intimacy has been lost – the certainty that sharing one’s body also shares the soul is absent. Indeed, it seems a precious part of marriage is now relegated to just another form of recreation.
What happened? I remember the changing attitudes of the 1960s and 1970s when birth control meant less worry about pregnancy. The blessing of choosing when to add a family member was undeniable. Women’s health improved as a result. But the mores about waiting for physical intimacy until marriage dissolved in front of us. There was little concrete teaching then in the church about the multiple godly facets of intimacy or the soul issues of relationships. Rules without understanding the principles behind them fail to capture the minds and hearts of thinking human beings, given free will by their Creator. As knowledge has grown, so has the need for depth of understanding of the whys of a life well lived.
Studies from marriage counseling yield a greater depth of discernment about the facets of physical intimacy that manifest in a couple’s relationship. When passed on to younger generations, this knowledge has the potential to change their attitudes and choices regarding the commitment required for truly fulfilling relationships, which can enrich and expand our lives greatly. Still, the relationship most important to anyone’s fulfillment lies in knowing God and accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to save, heal, and deliver us from ourselves. I have a new burden to pray for younger generations; their need for relationship with God before relationship with one another is clear.
Jeremiah 17:14 Heal me, O Eternal One, and I will be healed. You alone can save me; to You alone do I sing my praise. The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
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