School’s out and the lazy, hazy days of summer are upon us. And the thoughts of young men and women often turn to love, romance — and sex. How do we mature Christians guide them through the mine field of emotions and the maze of sexual myths?

Excellent help can be found in “How to Stay Christian in College” (Navpress, 1999) by Prof. J. Budziszewski. In chapter 6 he smartly raises and demolishes several common myths young people hold about love and sex. Let me cite the first, and his reply…

MYTH NUMBER ONE:
LOVE IS A FEELING, AND SEX IS THE ADULT WAY TO EXPRESS IT.

Have you ever wondered why when people get married, they promise to love each other until death? Think about it. Feelings change. You can’t promise to have a feeling. So if love is a feeling, the marriage vow makes no sense at all. But the vow odes make sense because love is not a feeling. What is it , then? Love is a commitment of the will to the true good of another person. Love, let me repeat, is a commitment of the will to the true good of another person.

Now the outward expression and seal of a commitment of the will is a binding promise. So the adult way to express love is to enter into a binding promise — and that’s what we call marriage. “If you really loved me,” some people say, “you’d do it with me.” Baloney. If he really loved you, he wouldn’t demand it. If she really loved you, she wouldn’t either.

Score: Truth = 1, Myth = 0.

More to follow….
pdb