The Value of Purity

Oct 14, 2013 by Jim and Jerolyn Bogear

We were in one of our church’s small group Bible studies several years ago now, and it was Christmas time. We chose at the time to keep our kids in the group with us during the discussion.

We were talking through the very familiar Christmas story from one of the scripture passages. Without giving a second thought, someone was reading a passage out loud about Mary being a virgin.

Our son, who was quite young at the time spoke up and asked, “What’s the big deal about Mary being a virgin?” There was a young couple attending that had not started a family yet. We all kind of looked at each other, and I said something to the young husband like, “Why don’t you tell him?” We laughed. Well, I think I nervously laughed, as I realized, and they verbalized, “Well Jim, guess you will need to explain that one later.”

It was time to have The Talk.  We had talked before and had given as much information as necessary for each of our children to understand and know about sex and purity, but this was another step in the discussion.

So, after the group finished and all others headed home, I went upstairs to our son’s room before bed. Not the bedtime story I thought I would be giving, but a part of the parenting process. We discussed, and he seemed to understand. We later had much more involved discussions about sex, intimacy, and purity along his journey, but especially more detailed and mature discussions on his legacy trip.

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