LETTERS TO MY SON: PROTECT HER PURITY
(PART ONE)
Dear Matthew,
Today I just want to tell you a story.
Once upon a time there was a beautiful maiden. She was the delight of her father and the joy of her mother. She was extraordinarily intelligent, a voracious learner, a lover of God, a passionate follower of Jesus. And she loved people.
She really loved people.
Hurting souls flocked to her for warmth and care and she never failed to give. Sometimes she brought the broken ones to her father and mother and said, “Here’s one for you to fix, won’t you pour some wisdom into this failed one?”
One day this Beauty went away on a Grand Adventure. She left her love-filled home to seek her fortune and her calling in a place that cried out for all she had to offer.
Her parents prayed… and cried… and prayed yet more. To let their delight, their joy go into a world filled with so much bad frightened them.
While she was in that land away from home… the beautiful maiden met a boy.
Messages flew back and forth between the beloved girl and the mother and father way back home. Hers filled with descriptions and wonder and feelings and hope. Theirs weighted with dire warnings, lessons, reminders, and worry.
One day the father mounted on the wings of the wind and flew to where the daughter lived and loved. He brought a thick black Bible, an arsenal of words, and a fierce scowl.
The boy came trembling but true. He shook the hand of the father, looked him in the eye, and assured him of his faithful following after the King.
A pause…
They sat… They talked… They even laughed a time or two.
And then the father said this.
For more than two-score years I have protected my daughter in every way. I watched over her when she was just a babe in her mother’s arms. I provided for every need before she had it. I have loved her and taught her and poured the best years of my life into her. I have prayed over her and for her and with her.
I ask just one thing of you: Guard her purity.
With that warning, the father mounted his flying steed with a swish of his cloak, and returned home.
The boy did what the father commanded. He watched over the beloved daughter. He cared for her and loved her and won her heart.
And he protected her purity.
When the day came for the father to give the girl-turned-woman to the boy-turned-man in marriage, a great celebration took place in all the Kingdom.
With the greatest joy, the father and the mother who had loved their girl with so much hope, embraced the one who had honored the King by protecting their daughter.
And every day they thank the King for that mighty man. And they pray for him and they believe in him and they love him as their own.
May Steve and Rebekah live happily ever after.
The End.
And so my son, may you do the same when someday you see a daughter of the King you want for your own.
May you protect her purity with the fierceness of a warrior.
From my heart,
Mom