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Monday, January 4, 2010

Chastity

The other day I was watching the Rachael Ray show and Julie Andrews was a guest that day. I was excited to hear about what she was up to these days. One of Rachael's questions to her was about a quote she gave to Vanity Fair magazine. In it she was quoted as saying, "Chastity is an overrated virtue." Julie confirmed that this was genuine and that she still felt that way.

I was slightly shocked at this. I mean that- yeah people in Hollywood do not quite share the moral standards that I hold dear. But sometimes you get thinking that when an actor is constantly portraying someone (in their films) with moral fiber that they might actually have some them self. For some reason I always thought that a good girl could pretend to be bad but bad one couldn't pretend to be good. Well I was wrong! But I still want to speak about chastity today because I don't agree with media that it is an overrated virtue.

After searching the scriptures on lds.org for the word "chastity" I was returned with two scriptural references:

  1. 28 For I, the Lord God, delight in the achastity of women. And bwhoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts.
  2. 9 And notwithstanding this great aabomination of the Lamanites, it doth not exceed that of our people in Moriantum. For behold, many of the daughters of the Lamanites have they taken prisoners; and after bdepriving them of that which was most dear and precious above all things, which is cchastity and dvirtue
In these Book of Mormon scriptures we learn that the Lord God delights in the chastity of women and that the most dear and precious thing we have is our chastity and virtue. There are many other scriptures that contain the word (or its forms) "virtue" which here is used interchangeably.

I am so glad that recently a new value has been added to the young women values of the church- "virtue". Yesterday in Relief Society we were given the pamphlet and asked to also hold to this value and follow the same program that the young women do. It is no wonder that we are needing to emphasize this value in the church today even more than before. There are obviously so many that believe it is not important anymore.

An amazing talk on the subject came from President Benson:

Do not be misled by Satan’s lies. There is no lasting happiness in immorality. There is no joy to be found in breaking the law of chastity. Just the opposite is true. There may be momentary pleasure. For a time it may seem like everything is wonderful. But quickly the relationship will sour. Guilt and shame set in. We become fearful that our sins will be discovered. We must sneak and hide, lie and cheat. Love begins to die. Bitterness, jealousy, anger, and even hate begin to grow. All of these are the natural results of sin and transgression.

On the other hand, when we obey the law of chastity and keep ourselves morally clean, we will experience the blessings of increased love and peace, greater trust and respect for our marital partners, deeper commitment to each other, and therefore a deep and significant sense of joy and happiness.

We must not be misled into thinking these sins are minor or that consequences are not that serious.

I decided to post about this today not because the other authors of this blog need to hear about it. We were all married in the temple and currently enjoy the blessings that come from it. I wanted to post this because so many people don't understand how important this value is. So many people are keeping quiet about it. More people need to speak out and declare the importance of this value. More people should bear their testimony about it. The people living on the earth today need to know there are other people who hold these values dear and teach them to their children. Please if you are reading this and also feel the same about chastity, leave a comment. Tell everyone what this value means to you.

3 comments:

  1. Mary Poppins, of all people!!! :) That really is disturbing!

    I'm glad we have each other to be reminded that there are still virtuous women out there willing to stand up for what's right and good!

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  2. Thank you for posting this. I was just talking to my mom today about how a century ago people were publicly scorned for fornication before marriage, even in some time periods stoned to death... how could we have come so far from that today where it is so commonplace for people to treat it as nothing? That people avoid marriage and just live together, or have multiple "partners" just really destroys what could have been precious for them in life and in marriage. It is also a lack of concern for a tiny baby's life- caring not whether a new child is born into a loving family with two parents who are excited to welcome the baby into the world. No, it is neglecting to care for human life, and the miracle that creates it.

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  3. There is a great book about this topic called "The Good Girl Revolution" by Wendy Shalit. It's all about young women who are refusing to be "bad girls" just because society promotes it. It's seriously a wonderful book and I highly recommend it.

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