When I was barely 13, my older sister gave me a small gift: a card. She sat with me as I read the card, signed it and tucked it away in a keepsake box. It doesn’t sound like much, but that tiny piece of paper turned out to be an important reminder for an important decision. 

The gift my sister gave me was a True Love Waits card—a pledge to preserve my virginity until marriage. I was raised in a Christian home, and purity was some- thing that I’d been taught to cherish. It wasn’t until I reached the age of 16 that I began to realize just how difficult that pledge would be to uphold. I dated one guy throughout high school, but he didn’t share my beliefs. In the moments we were alone, it was a struggle to be aware of God’s presence in my spirit when my body was telling me something different. It didn’t help that most of my girlfriends many who had made the same pledge were throwing away their promise to God at the first opportunity. It broke my heart to feel so alone. 
   
In college, I found that there truly was a greater sense of empathy and respect for my decision to wait. Even in a public institution where casual encounters weren’t only more common but often praised by my fellow students, I found it easier to relate to other people and their own battles with sex.
   
The Baptist Student Union, an on-campus religious organization, introduced me to fun, outgoing, like- minded peers who supported me through Bible study and missions opportunities. The most surprising development about my college experience was that God used the people who didn’t share my beliefs to strengthen me in moments of doubt. I was a creative writing major and was often required to participate in workshops where we shared our stories aloud. My faith became evident in our discussions, and I was told by female students on more than one occasion that they wished they, too, had waited.   

Get This!
What I want to remind my fellow sisters in this SUSIE Sisterhood is that sex itself is a wondrous creation. That’s right; it’s a creation! It was made by God so that a husband and wife can find fulfillment in each other in a way that physically expresses what’s emotional and spiritual.

We often forget this because we’re bombarded with negative messages from TV, conversations with our friends, and sometimes even from our leaders. What makes sex right is when it’s within the boundaries of marriage. 

In Eric and Leslie Ludy’s book When God Writes Your Love Story, they write that when the Lord tells us to honor our husbands all the days of our lives, He means that we should honor them before we even know who they are. I remember reading that at the age of 19 and thinking, Yes! I’ve finally found something that explains how I feel! 

It’s unrealistic to believe that we can approach the subject of purity alone. Only God can provide for us when we doubt the reality of the gift He’s given us, especially when we’re single and all our friends are going out on dates. 

The Bible is an excellent source of encouragement. In Solomon’s Song of Songs (in the Old Testament), the Shulamite woman pleads with the daughters of Jerusalem to “not stir up love until it pleases” (2:7, author’s paraphrase). In God’s time, what we desire becomes perfected in our willingness to trust in Him.

So Worth the Wait!
I met my husband during my junior year of college after a heart-wrenching breakup, and I had no idea that I had finally crossed paths with the man that God had made with me in mind. During the next two years, I realized that the Lord had not only given me a man who honored and shared my beliefs on sex, He had given me an accountability partner. On our wedding night, I was able to present my husband with two of my most precious possessions: my purity and the card I signed at the age of 13 promising to honor him all the days of my life.

Wendi Nunnery lives and writes in Marietta, Ga.