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" src="http://springvalestudents.org/benbartosik/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/sexed-300x218.jpg" alt="sexed" width="300" height="218" /></p> <p>Last night Alex and I tag-teamed the Q & A on Sex, Love, and Dating and it went (I think) really well. We had a great variety of questions that we sort of split up into categories. Ultimately we had decided that we wanted to talk about <em>four things</em>.</p> <p><strong>What is the purpose of sex?</strong></p> <p><strong>Boundaries in dating.</strong></p> <p><strong>Grace and Forgiveness.</strong></p> <p>and <strong>Marriage. </strong></p> <p>It would be difficult to try and put up exactly what we said, but I can certainly attest that as we spoke, it quickly became a very challenging evening and even both of us walked away with stuff to think about it.</p> <p>Ultimately we pointed to sex as a God created expression of love, intimacy, connection, and commitment to be shared with one person alone. We went on to suggest that boundaries, and the whole “how far is too far” question is not really the point. Any kind of intimate/romantic/sexual/however you want to call it/physical act is really meant to be shared with one person. And everytime you experience one of those things with someone else, that is something that you can no longer experience with your husband/wife when the time comes in the way it was meant to be enjoyed.</p> <p>Genesis 2:24 describes this perfect physical relationship:<br /> “<em>Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh</em>.”</p> <p>Whether it was holding hands, hugging, kissing, cuddling, tickling, sexual touch, or sex itself – all of these were created to be shared with each other – and no one else. Imagine how awesome that would be. Each exciting first time would be an adventure to be shared with that one person and no other. There would be no comparison and no fear. How great would it be if our relationships with our spouses could be like that?</p> <p>Now, we ultimately said that it is very difficult to try and think like this in our current culture of dating but it certainly is something to consider; how much less than perfection do you want to settle for?</p> <p>There was a whole lot of other stuff that was talked about but I don’t want to get bogged down in details. I just want to focus on two last things.</p> <p>The first, that despite where you’ve been or what you’ve done, <em>God’s grace and forgiveness</em> is big enough to pull you out of it. This is not an excuse to keep on sinning, but an encouragement that you are never so far from the light that you can’t be found by God. He wants you to stop hiding in the darkness and come into his light. He wants to renew you and help you get back on track for living that life that he created you for. Relationships of any kind can find that redemption. We just have to be willing to try. Sin and rebellion is just so much easier. And that’s why talking about it is the first step.</p> <p>And that brings me to my last point, we have to <em>start having a conversation</em> with each other about this stuff. Shame and darkness will only bring about more of the same. If forgiveness and repentance are ever going to be found, we have to start talking to God and to each other. Let’s seek honesty and understanding. Forgiveness and reconciliation.</p> <p>I pray that through all of this, the one thing that we see is students begin to ask more questions and start talking to those who can help guide them into right decision making.</p> <p>If you have any questions on this topic or are looking for further information. 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