Wanting Purity for Them

As you've probably seen, the Palin family is going through another media disaster. Levi Johnson, Bristol Palin's ex-boyfriend, has been doing interviews and talk shows recently. I saw a couple excerpts, and it seems to me he was led by biased interviewers into saying some of the negative things. Unquestionably, he is hurt.

Teenage and premarital sex is heartbreaking. These young people don't have the maturity to handle what they're getting themselves into. On top of that, to be exploited by the media is tragic.

When people go from partner to partner in their single years, I think they set themselves up for a later divorce. They're training themselves to break loose and move on, rather than to work through and hang on for better times. I don't know that Levi and Bristol are particularly suited for each other, but it is best for their baby if they commit and work through all these hard things.

Sarah Palin would be criticized if she kept quiet about recent developments, and she's going to be criticized for speaking out. Either way, left-leaning media will give it a negative spin. My guess is that any chance Sarah had at the White House is significantly damaged, unless the two young people work through this and emerge stable and married to each other, by 2012.

There are other good candidates for 2012, so I guess it doesn't make a lot of difference at this point. I do feel deeply sorry for the young people involved, and for both families. This is a great example of all the repercussions of sin. Our sins affect so many people, and while God forgives, he doesn't erase consequences.

There are plenty of people who accuse Sarah of being an unfit mother, due to her daughter's pregnancy. In this, I see such hypocrisy. What about all the girls who got pregnant, just as Bristol did, but hid it by obtaining abortions last year? How many children of politicians just get the abortion?

I'm weary of the term "white trash" being thrown around, in reference to both the Johnson and Palin families. Bristol is taking responsibility for her mistake. I find more to admire about her, than I do the millions of people who "cover up" their mistakes, with fetal death.

Finally, this whole tragic affair makes me wonder how I can possibly prevent it from happening to my own children. I want to start now, to make sure my children reach their marriage beds pure, with their hearts unbroken and still hopeful.

I saw a quote from Jennifer Aniston recently, who is forty, divorced, and currently going from relationship to relationship. It went something like this: "I don't think every relationship has to last forever. Each one is a world unto itself." Obviously, this is a woman who hasn't guarded her heart. She SETTLES for serial monogamy, believing anything else is too much to ask. How tragic, what premarital sex does to the human heart, and to the human spirit. There's no question that Aniston is ignorant of where she's gone wrong. Merely a product of our me-first, anything-goes society, I see her as a victim of Satan's lure.

I want purity for my children. I want God's best for them. However, I don't know how to guarantee it, since God allows free will. I can pour Scripture into them, obtain purity programs and literature from Focus on the Family, and try to do everything I can to meet their emotional needs, so they aren't looking outside the family for emotional sustenance. I can shield them from public school, and all its cell-phone sex, peer pressure, and the like. I can send them out only with escorts. I hope that is enough. But if not, I will have to let go of my disappointment, and do what Sarah has done - support and love them, no matter what.

Lord, help us in this. Protect my children, and their future spouses, from any soiling. Guide us, give us wisdom, help us protect. Pour your spirit into them, give them discernment and strength, and a love for your Word.