Lesson on Chastity. Yeah, I got that fun one...

I got the fun lesson on chastity....Anyways,  this is how I approached it. I'm sure there are better ways, I was trying to show the girls that although they are all convinced that they will never make these mistakes that if they do they can turn back and be forgiven. The girls I was teaching are not dating age yet, and were all sure that they wouldn't ever struggle with this. Maybe they won't, but it was frustrating when they constantly, oh why are you even teaching us about this, we don't have this problem. Finally one of the other leaders pointed out, you guys aren't even dating yet. Come back to us and say this again, when you are dating a boy that you think you are absolutely in love with. We didn't want the girls to think that it was impossible for them to stick to their guns, but we wanted them to be aware that it's not easy, and that they need to be reminded to choose the right so that they will.

Object Lesson:

                        Jars of Representation: Jar of Money and Jar representing what they pay. You have been saving for a couple of years because you know how important school is to you and your family. You have saved quite a bit, and it will pay for a lot of your college. However, there are a few things that are tempting to buy, and you can find reasons with yourself why it is ok to purchase them.

College Fund	Your Virtue
Your friends want to go to a movie and you don’t have any other money. It’s a movie you have looked forward to. You also figure it’s only 10 dollars.	Your friends do not dress modestly, and have encouraged you to dress like them. You want to fit in, and figure it’s only the way you dress.
Family and friends have made a little fun of the clothes that you are wearing, commenting on how you will look funny as a college student wearing something like that. So you think maybe it’s time for a make over to get ready for school. Make a new you. It costs 100 dollars for everything, so you got some great deals.	You and your friends have a few movies that you have really wanted to see, but have found out they are rated pg 13 or R for sexually explicit content. You figure it’s ok to just watch it, its not like you are doing anything wrong.
Your cheap phone can be frustrating when you watch someone using the newest model. You decided in order to succeed socially with your teachers, and of course your study group you are going to need a better phone. It costs 400 dollars, but now you can look up all the information you need.	You decided that it has been a little frustrating to be the third wheel with your friends who have boyfriends even though they aren’t 16 yet. You don’t see the harm in dating before 16, plus you just want to have some fun.
A friends beg to be able to borrow a large sum of money for a trip, and promise to pay you back. They aren’t able to come up with the money.	You have become steady with a boy you really like, but he doesn’t exactly have the same plans as you do. Your friends are sexually active and make you feel ridiculous for not being so. You can’t really seem to figure out what your argument against it is anymore.
Your mom has been planning on driving you to school, or you can ride the bus to college for a couple of years, but you suddenly find yourself a little embarrassed. You have spent a little money on other stuff, but you figure you should still have enough money for school. You decide if you can find a car for a good price that you should purchase one so that you can drive yourself to and from college so you don’t have to worry if you miss the bus or your mom is running late.	Upon arriving to many different reasons such as it’s your body and you will do what you want with it, the church is too strict and you can always repent, you want to fit in, you want to keep your boyfriend. No matter the reason but you have decided to give up yourself, and your virtue. You will make it to the temple eventually.
Time to register and pay for school comes and you don’t quite have the amount that is due. You didn’t realize that you had spent that much. Even with your whole next check you won’t quite make it.	You have made some mistakes, and find the guy that you want to marry. You know that this is the one that you want to marry in the temple, and he wants to take you there. You realize that you don’t quite make it. Elder Holland said in his talk about Personal Purity: You may discover to your horror that what you should have saved you have spent, and that only God’s grace can recover the virtue you so casually gave away.
You decide that it’s time for you to approach your parents. They know how hard you had been trying to save money, and they know you made mistakes. Although you didn’t do it by yourself, you ask them if they would help you. Your parents pay the rest of the amount needed to pay for your school even though they were struggling for money for themselves.	How can you make it? Repentance. Unlike money you don’t get it back, but you can repent for it and be forgiven to become worthy of the temple. If you are trying, if you have repented, the sacrifice of Christ will make up the difference for you.

Now this is just one scenario. You could choose not to pay for things that are not good, and not make the mistakes that could cost you dearly. Which obviously is what God wants for you, and what we want for you when we teach you to not do things that you will regret. We want you to make it to the temple because it is important.

Our topic this month has been marriage and family and we have touched upon the topic I chose, but I would like to go a little further into it. What is chastity?

--sexual purity and involves being morally clean in thoughts, words, and actions. Sexual intimacy is ordained of God for the creation of children and for the expression of love between a husband and wife. God has commanded that sexual intimacy be reserved for marriage. When we are sexually pure, we qualify for the companionship of the Holy Ghost, and we are protected from the emotional and spiritual damage of sexual sin.

So based on this statement why is chastity so important? No unclean thing can enter the temple. We want to enter the temple to be sealed for all time and eternity.

So in this world what are you taught about sexual purity? What does the media tell you through music, movies, television? What do your peers say? Is it considered uncool to still be a virgin?

Read scriptures: Genesis 39:7-21, 1 Nephi 10:21, Alma 39:1-13, Moroni 9:9, D and C 46:33.

I want to pose a question. Do you think it would be easier to give into the world and have a sexual relationship outside of marriage, such as with a boyfriend in junior high or high school? Do you think your life would be easier? Or do you think that although you continually get hit from almost every side with this type of thought that it is in fact easier to stay pure and virtuous? I want to know your thoughts so please share?

I want to share with you some piece of Jeffrey R. Holland’s talk on Personal Purity. He wants to answer these questions:

·  Why should we be morally clean? Why is it such an important issue to God? Does the Church have to be so strict about it when others don’t seem to be?

Why should we? The writer of Proverbs observes: “Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? . . . Whoso committeth adultery . . . destroyeth his own soul. A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away” (Prov. 6:27–28, 32–33).

Why is it important to God? He is trying to tell us about its place in His plan for all men and women? I submit to you He is doing precisely that—commenting about the very plan of life itself. Clearly among His greatest concerns regarding mortality are how one gets into this world and how one gets out of it. He has set very strict limits in these matters.

·  Does the Church have to be so strict about it when others don’t seem to be?

The body is an essential part of the soul. This distinctive and very important Latter-day Saint doctrine underscores why sexual sin is so serious. We declare that one who uses the God-given body of another without divine sanction abuses the very soul of that individual, abuses the central purpose and processes of life, “the very key” Secondly, human intimacy is reserved for a married couple because it is the ultimate symbol of total union, a totality and a union ordained and defined by God. You must wait until you can give everything, and you cannot give everything until you are legally and lawfully married. If you persist in pursuing physical satisfaction without the sanction of heaven, you run the terrible risk of such spiritual, psychic damage that you may undermine both your longing for physical intimacy and your ability to give wholehearted devotion to a later, truer love. The only control placed on us is self control. Unless such powers are controlled and commandments kept, your future may be burned; your world could go up in flames. Penalty may not come on the precise day of transgression, but it comes surely and certainly enough. And unless there is true repentance and obedience to a merciful God, then someday, somewhere, the unclean will pray like the rich man who wished Lazarus to “dip . . . his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame”

 

Now, I’m sure you guys have had many lessons on staying abstinent and not having sex outside of marriage, so I want to talk about the other aspects of chastity.

Clean thoughts, words, and actions. 

Read Strength of youth Dress and Appearance.  D and C 121:45-46, and Strength of Youth Sexual Purity part.

So why is it important to have clean thoughts, words, and actions?

--in order to have the Holy Ghost with us, so we can make good choices. The farther we are from sin the easier it is not to do so.

Show True Confidence video.

So just to close, I shared a personal story, which I would rather not share with the entire world, but if you have a personal story, it might be good to share it with your youth in order for them to realize that it is serious, and it’s not just a lesson for them to listen to. It’s something they need to pay attention to. I want you girls to know, no matter how bad, how often, how far you have turned away from the commandments, you can turn back, and it is worth it. It will be the most challenging thing you can ever experience, but it is worth it.  I also can guarantee you that if you choose instead to not make the mistakes, if you rely on God for help and strength, and if you don’t push yourself to the limits thinking you will be able to pull up in time, you will live a much happier life.  I also talked about the feelings of shame, how that is the Devil’s tool. We talked about how you need the sense of shame to realize you have done something wrong, but the devil uses it when it is time to choose the right such as repenting. He will shame you into thinking that it is too embarrassing, or that you don’t deserve to be forgiven. I urged the girls not to pay attention to this shame. I reminded them that the day they decide to choose the right is when they should hold their head up high.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

 

The body is something to be kept pure and holy. Do not be afraid of soiling its hands in honest labor. Do not be afraid of scars that may come in defending the truth or fighting for the right, but beware scars that spiritually disfigure, that come to you in activities you should not have undertaken, that befall you in places where you should not have gone.