1 in 4

Hey guys and gals,

I just ran across a scary news article. If you want to read it, here's the link to it.

This report was specifically about women getting sexually transmitted diseases. The average is that 1 in 4 sexually active women under the age of 25 has an STD. Think about that! If you were to line up all the kids at your school who are sleeping around, you can actually go down the line counting "1, 2, 3, STD!, 1, 2, 3, STD! 1, 2, 3, STD!" It's not just the ladies...it's the guys who are transmitting these things around, too. This stuff is real, and terrible if you get it. Warts, puss, itching, pain for days at a time, sometimes you end up unable to have children, and some STD's even cause you to go insane and die!

God loves us, and he made us in his image. The world around us tells us that it's a good thing to treat our bodies like they are just pieces of meat. As Christians, it's so important to save yourself for your future husband/wife, even if you have no idea who that person might be! Don't let anyone convince you that you aren't worth waiting for. If someone will only spend time with you if you give them what they want, then they aren't worth being with anyway. You are more valuable than that.

And if the fact that it's wrong isn't enough to convince you not to do it...look at the huge risk involved! Would you pull the trigger of a gun pointed at your head just because someone said, "There's only a 1 in 6 chance it's got a bullet in it"?

We're talking 1 in 4! And some of these STD's are as deadly as bullets, only you die much more slowly and painfully than getting shot. Birth control methods might help prevent pregnancy sometimes, but they do little to stop STD's. The only 100% safe way to avoid STD's is to not let people treat you like you're only a piece of meat. Your body is the temple of God. Keep it pure. Save it for your spouse.

When people are young and aren't serious about life, loose girls can get a lot of attention. But if you are serious about wanting a good life and a good spouse, people want to marry someone who is pure and who respects himself/herself. Be that person. And even if you haven't been perfect up until now, then you can at least decide that from now on you will do the right thing. You'll never regret honoring God, especially when honoring God is something that's hard to do.

Sorry to get up on a soap box there, but I love you all too much, and it makes me sick to think of any of you becoming a statistic.

I pray that you all make good decisions,

Mark <><