1 Timothy 4:¹² Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

Titus 2³ The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;⁴ That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,⁵ To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

I apologize for this post being later than I had hoped.

For those of you who have ever played a large role in a Vacation Bible School, I’m sure you can understand why I took a little break.

And all my VBS peeps said, “Amen!”

This past week, our church was having our annual VBS with the theme of “The Virtuous Woman”. Each night, we discussed a characteristic found in Proverbs 31 and used a woman in the bible that exhibited those characteristics.

We talked about:

The Faith of a Virtuous Woman

The Wisdom of a Virtuous Woman

The Compassion of a Virtuous Woman

The Courage of a Virtuous Woman

For our last virtue, we talked about purity.

We all know that purity means clean; without contamination.

We also know that physical purity is important and discussed in the bible.

I don’t want to get off on this tangent, but I feel that I need to point this out: this is something that has been tossed aside in our society. The idea that a person’s sexual purity is disposable, unnecessary, and a curse, has crawled its way into many of our homes.

Our children can’t see a commercial or hear a song without some sort of sexual insinuation, which, if left ignored, will desensitize them to impropriety.

The world is astonished at the notion of having a relationship without physical intimacy until marriage. “What’s the big deal?!” The big deal is that God intended for your body to belong to the person you marry, when you are married, and to no one else at any other time– and that goes for ladies AND gentlemen.

I told my daughter the other day that the reason I dislike “new country music” is because southern women are portrayed as promiscuous, immodest, drunken girls with a love of drunk boys in pick-ups. Remember when being a southern lady meant having a sense of propriety and values, loving Jesus, and being loyal to family?

I know I sound like an 80-year-old grandma with a wagging finger, but I can’t help it. I have a daughter to raise and I want my son to learn to value women, to be a protector of these virtues, and posses them himself. However, it seems that everywhere we look, women are showing their bodies and men are praising them for it. On the other hand, we have aggressive women throwing themselves at men who want to do the right thing.

Please understand that this rambling of mine isn’t about legalism. If we depended on our actions for God’s mercy, we’d all be doomed.

God’s word, if we have been saved, should cause us to examine ourselves and convict us of our wrong doings. I can’t help but do that every time I study the Proverbs 31 woman. It reveals in me my impure thoughts and actions. I am a sinner saved by grace– but I’m still a sinner and will be until I lay this body down. This is why God’s grace is so needful and wonderful.

It’s also why we need to extend grace to others.

We cannot be perfect. None of us can. It baffles me that people think they can be good enough to go to heaven. Scripture teaches us plainly that no one can be good enough. God compares us to Jesus. Can any of us measure up to Jesus’s purity? No. Not one. When God looks at us, He sees a people who have sinned against Him and His Son– but if He sees the blood of His Son on our hearts, He sees us as His children.

If my kids have had a bad day and had gotten in trouble, I tell them that best thing about tomorrow is that it’s a fresh start with no mistakes. Isn’t it nice to know that it’s the same with God?

Lamentations 3:²¹ This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.²² It is of the Lord‘s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.²³ They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

I hope that we all realize we must strive for holiness. Not just our bodies– but our eyes, ears, and mind need to be guarded. Do we protect our thoughts? Do we guard our hearts? Virtue is something that requires great effort and I pray that God will grant us the strength and perseverance to achieve such things for His honor, His glory, and to the furthering of His kingdom.

We are linked up!

God bless you all,