Fraaaagiiiiiileeeee...Hmmm, Must Be Italian!

It's the perfect day.  The day of your wedding.  You're standing there with your spouse, looking at all the people that came to congratulate you on this most special of occasions.  You study each of the faces, then your spouse whispers in your ear, "Honey, didn't you invite your aunt?"  

"I sent her an invite, but I don't see her here."  

A hand taps you on the back.  You turn around and its your uncle.  You throw your arms around him and say, "Hi Uncle Brad!  Thank you so much for coming!  Where's Aunt Pam?"  

"She had an emergency to take care of out of state, but she wanted me to let you know that she bought you both a gift.  It's a really expensive gift, but it's also really fragile."  

Your spouse say, "Well, we appreciate your graciousness.  Is this gift in your car?"

"Oh no, my sons and I have already moved it to the table where all the other gifts are.  I gotta run right now, but we hope you enjoy the gift!"  As Uncle Brad is running off, he yells, "JUST REMEMBER TO BE CAREFUL WITH IT!" 

As you two are walking over to the table filled with gifts, your spouse turns to you and says, "What do you think it could be?"

"I'm not sure, but I'm curious to find out what it is."

"Me too, I'm really nervous though.  Your aunt and uncle are wealthy, what will we tell them if we end up ruining their fragile, expensive gift?"

You laugh and say, "How about this: after everyone's left and all the other gifts have been unwrapped, then we'll open my aunt and uncle's gift?  That way, if we mess it up, it's only between us."  

Your spouse laughs out loud and responds with, "That sounds like a great idea."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Having laid out that story for y'all, I need to drop a lil gem.  The very expensive, fragile gift that the couple in the story are unwrapping is an allegory for sexual intimacy between a husband and wife.  How do you think that couple went about "opening" that gift?  Very carefully, very patiently.  They did it together, as one unit.  And the gift was fulfilling because of it.  

Sex is designed for two things: creating children, and bonding husband and wife.  Sex is a good thing, a great thing.  But, like any good thing, it can be misused.  A hammer can be used for building things, but it can also be used to tear things down.  It's the same tool.  The difference comes with when and how that tool is used.  Now I've learned that the best place to experience sexual intimacy is within the bonds of marriage, where love and trust and confidence in one another can be built together.  Sex is not a bad thing before marriage that becomes a good thing once you're married.  It's the same act.  The difference is the when, the how, AND with whom you choose to be sexually intimate with.  

I often think of the fruit in the Garden of Eden detailed in the book of Genesis.  There was a fruit that God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat.  Why?  Was the fruit bad?  No.  In fact, the fruit was said to be delicious and very desirable.  It was not bad fruit.  It was forbidden fruit. 

Now why would sexual intimacy be forbidden until marriage?  If it is God given, doesn't God want us to be happy?  Yes.  Does God want us to be fulfilled?  Yes.  Does God want us to be satisfied?  Yes.  That is the very reason why the "fruit" of sexual intimacy is forbidden until marriage.  This is so that we can TRULY be happy, not only when we go to bed with someone.  Anyone in the world can be happy on that occasion.  But also, there is the moment when you wake up in bed with someone and thoughts begin plaguing the mind, "What have I done?"  People are trading a lifetime of fulfillment for fifteen minutes of pleasure and passion.  

Like I had said before, sex is a good thing.  It IS the fragile gift that must be treated with care, or it can bring a lot of pain and hurt that may not come about in an instant, but over a lifetime of treating sex like it means nothing. 


https://laytreasuresinheaven.com/sex-is-like-an-apple-brad-wilcox/ 
(paragraphs 33-34) 








 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Communication Theory

What is a theory? For the layman like myself, I have to dumb things down in order to understand them better.  In its simplest definition, a theory is an explanation as to why something is the way it is.  Scientists will use these theories to guide their research in whatever field of science they may be practicing.   This week in class, we learned about different theories having to do with behavior both in the family and outside the family.   I am going to describe a few of the theories that have dominated my mind over the last few days.    Systems theory maintains that any intimate group must be observed as a whole.  It analyzes how each member of the family influences one another.  As a system, each individual family member has roles and rules that apply to them, which directly affects the whole unit.  Though members of the family may be individual in their specific role that they fill, they have an impact on the rest of the group so a...
Read more

Parents

  I thought I would start off this blog post with some quotes I found about parents and their kids: 1. Silence is golden...unless you have kids.  Then, silence is suspicious. 2. There should be a children's song that goes, "If you're happy and you know it, keep it to yourself and let Dad sleep." 3. You wanna know what having a fourth child is like?  Just imagine you're drowning...and then someone hands you a baby.  4. The trouble with being a parent is that by the time you think you're experienced, all of a sudden, you're unemployed.   I also once heard from a wise, albino comedian named Jim Gaffigan, that being a parent is not that different from being a tourist in a foreign country.  With parenting and tourism, you walk around exhausted, spending money you don't have on things you don't need...while you struggle to find a bathroom.  Just somewhere to sit down. It's the same experience. Anyways, enough with the silliness.  It’s time to be se...
Read more

Our Christ Culture

I think I have mentioned it before: I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I have been a Latter-day Saint my whole entire life, and I do not know who I would be without being raised on Jesus Christ.   A few months ago, I returned from serving as a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ.  I served in Kansas for two years.  It was during my time in Kansas that I made the decision to pursue a degree in Marriage and Family studies.  Because of this decision, I thought to myself: well, what makes a strong family?  A couple that invited me over for dinner were just about to celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary.  I asked them, "How in the world have you made your marriage last that long??"  They answered with this exact statement, "Well, we made Jesus Christ the foundation of our relationship.  Our marriage was never just the two of us.  It was me, my wife, and the Savior.  That is our cult...
Read more