Lord Of The Rings

This all started a year ago when my mom got some magazine in the mail. I, being extremely bored at the time decided to give it a read. It was one of those Christian family magazines so there no harm in me reading it. Or so I thought.

I came to a story in the middle of the magazine about this mom and her husband. They had two teenage boys…I believe they were 15 and 13, anyway, this mom began to write about her oldest son and how when he hit 13 she decided it was time to give her son ‘the talk’ *Insert Dramatic bum-bum-bum HERE*

She and her husband sat the boy down and gave him an educated discussion on the subject at hand. Near the end of the talk she began to explain to her son that God had designed intimacy for marriage only and how he should wait just as God wants you to. The boys agreed to do so, and by this point in the story and I thrilled…how often is it that you hear a story like that?! And about a boy?!

Then I kept on reading…

It was after the talk that the boy’s parents gave him a purity ring and asked him to wear it. They knew that not all of his school buddies knew God and they wanted him to have a reminder at all times about his commitment of purity. Not to fall in to what his friends were doing. At this point in the story, the boy began to throw a fit! He called his parents awful names and said that he would ‘look like an idiot to his friends if he wore one’.

My stomach fell after reading that. The mother went on in her story:

She and her husband felt troubled for days after the ring incident. She began to think (notice I said think, not pray) about the problem and she came up with a solution. The next day the mom went to a local store and bought her son a watch, no more than a couple of dollars. When her son got home from school that day, she told him that he needed a watch anyway, why not make it his purity watch. He sighed and wore the watch for a week at his mothers request…a week later, it broke…it was never fixed.

The mother skipped ahead about 2 years in her story. She and her husband were now facing giving their second 13-year-old boy the talk. They did everything just the same as his older brother…including offering him the same ring they had offered his brother 2 years prior. And just like his older brother, the boy snapped. He said his friends would make fun of him for wearing it and he refused the ring…throwing it across the room.

Once again the mom was troubled (who wouldn’t be?!). So she came up with another bright idea. She knew her son had wanted an iPod for months, so she bargained with him. If he paid half, she would pay the other half and it would be his ‘purity iPod’. He agreed and got his iPod.

The End.

My heart ached after reading that story, for some reason what they tried to justify as fair wasn’t quite jiving with my Spirit. I went into a serious prayer time afterwards and asked God why I felt so stirred up about this silly story. It wasn’t even a few moments later when I heard my answer…

God showed me two examples. I want you to see them the same way I did. Let’s just say that the older brother’s watch and the younger brother’s iPod were really their purity…’kay? The older brother had it and was FORCED to wear it for a week before it BROKE. And he never got the resolve to go and fix it. And the little brother got an iPod to make up for his lack of a ring…but that was a year ago. Since then iPhone’s and several other gadgets have come out that he would probably rather have than an old fashioned iPod. Would he be willing to pawn off his purity to the closet bidder JUST to get the next bigger and better thing? Catch my drift?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m NOT saying you have to wear a purity ring to stay pure (although I believe they are an AMAZING investment). The point I’m trying to make is this: what would you care about more? Wearing the ring and knowing what it means to you…or not wearing it because your friends might think ‘you’re an idiot’?

People all over the world don’t have the right to speak of their faith let alone wear a ring that symbolizes their purity. We in America have a privilege and we refuse the right to use it because we are so caught up in a mentality that says that ‘what will people think of us?’

It’s selfish and it’s stupid.

God sent Christ to die so that we could live, and tell other about the opportunity to live through Him as well. What good are we using of that privilege if we are too caught up on what other people think of us to use it?

I will finish with another story:

Not too long after I read the story about the boys I went to my local Christian bookstore to scan around the CD’s, and trust me, when I scan CD’s, I could be there for HOURS…at one point I saw a little girl go bolting into the store with a giant smile on her face, she headed right towards the jewelry section and pointed directly at the purity rings. She couldn’t have been anymore than 9 or 10. Soon followed her were her older brother, her mother and her father. As I headed back to look at more CD’s, I grinned. There was an example for a little girl unashamed to show what she stood for. And she was only 9!

About an hour later (yes, an HOUR) later I got done looking at the CD’s and went back to the front of the store where I still saw this family near the jewelry. Only the little girl was caught up in looking at other things like little candy’s near the register…the ring wasn’t for her.

It was for her brother.

In a society where guys are beat down most of all in the faith, here was an example of a man…he looked about 14, not afraid to show what he believed in, not caring what his friends thought, it was what mattered to him, and that was declaring what he stood for.

That inspired me that day. That is the way that ALL of us should be living. Not caring what others think about us, but caring about what GOD thinks about us. It says in the Word that God sent His Son to die so that we would have new life in Him, and how we need to let the whole world know it. But it also said that if we refuse to speak of our Father, He will refuse to speak of us.

What will you pick? Will you take the route of the brothers and protect your own pride before making a statement…or will you live like a true Jesus Freak and go against the ways of this world?

The choice is yours alone…but I already know I’ve already made mine. :)