Come Follow Me: Why is chastity important?

This week, our young women president Katie had the pleasure of teaching the dreaded lesson on chastity.  It is the lesson that no teacher really wants to teach and that the girls groan about when it comes up.  But in all honesty, she taught it in a way that got the girls involved and she was able to have everyone walk out the door with positive thoughts about the girls remaining chaste.

Katie started off with an object lesson.  She poured everyone a cup of Sunny Delight and had us drink half of it.  Then she had us describe what we tasted.  Some of the answers included: sweet, tangy, fresh, cold.  After we had all enjoyed our drink, she gave us a mint and instructed us to chew the mint then take a drink directly after.  As you can all imagine, the reactions ranged from: gross to sour to "it hurts my teeth" to strong. Katie then asked us why we thought that the experiences differed.  Because when we ate the mint and then took a drink, we didn't do things in the proper order and it ruined our taste.

So just like chewing mints and drinking juice, not being chaste involves not doing things in the proper order.

Chastity is defined as:

"Chastity is sexual purity and involves being morally clean in thoughts, words, and actions. Sexual intimacy is ordained of God for the creation of children and for the expression of love between husband and wife. God has commanded that sexual intimacy be reserved for marriage. When we are sexually pure, we qualify for the companionship of the Holy Ghost, and we are protected from the emotional and spiritual damage of sexual sin."

 After we defined chastity, Katie turned us to the words of David Bednar in his April 2013 conference address titled "We Believe in Being Chaste". The talk is broken down into sections, and Katie gave each girl and leader a section to summarize.

• The Father’s Plan of Happiness: This section goes over Heavenly Fathers plan - we live with Heavenly Father in the per-existence, we came to earth to obtain a body and work towards exaltation.
• The Importance of a Physical Body: Our body is an important tool.  It allows us to experience pain, physical challenges, disappointment, etc.
• The Power of Procreation: We believe that we are commanded to multiply and replenish the earth within the sacred bonds of marriage. 
• The Standard of Sexual Morality: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has an unwavering standard that intimate relations are only proper between and man and a woman in an eternal marriage.  We also believe we should be defined as children of God and not by our behaviors.
• The Natural Man: We are sons and daughters of Heavenly Father that live in a world full of sin, corruption and death.  And the adversary is working hard to get us to slip up.  We must fight to win the battle.
• The Intent of the Adversary: Satan works hard to make us confused, unhappy and not able to reach exaltation.  He does not have a body and can never return to live with Heavenly Father and he does not want anyone to be able to do that if he can't. 
• The Blessings of Being Chaste: There are many blessings that come along with being chaste and saving that experience for the one you choose to be married to eternally.  By being chaste, we can feel the saviors love for us.
• The Principle of Repentance: As a church we strive to remain pure and virtuous.  But we do know that some can make mistakes.  And it is important to know that you can repent for your sins.  Repentance allows for a closer relationship to Heavenly Father and a chance to heal spiritually. 

The girls were then asked a variety of questions:  "What are the consequences of dating a young man that does not have the same standards of Chastity that you do?", "What are the benefits of dating young men that do have the same standards?", "What is a reason you want to remain pure?"

Katie ended the class by expressing her testimony of the benefits or remaining chaste and her knowledge of how it can benefit their futures.

I have a strong testimony of why being chaste is important.  For those of you that do not know, I was adopted by my family when I was a baby.  My birth mother and father were young and not married and chose to give me up to a family where I could be raised with a mom and a dad.  Because they made the mistake of not obeying the law of chastity, they had to give me up. But just as it was stated above, my birth mother went through the process of repentance and it brought her family closer together and allowed them to be sealed. Adoption is an unselfish, loving decision that blesses the birth parents, the child, and the adoptive family.  But they could have avoided all that pain and heartache by remaining chaste.  This has been a lesson that I have kept in mind my entire life, and it made chastity something that was very important to me. 

P.S. Next months topic is Commandments - Commandments are the laws and requirements that a loving Heavenly Father gives His children to bless them, protect them, and guide them back to Him.