True Life: I was Celibate Until Marriage

Flipping through the channels the other day, I stumbled upon an episode of True Life on Mtv. The True Life series is a documentary series which follows three Mtv generation individuals as they deal with a common issue. In the past True Life has spotlighted eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, drug addition, etc. This episode, though, seemed a bit out of place. It was entitled, True Life: I'm Celibate. Mtv, the gospel of many teenagers, in one titling decision had grouped self-imposed celibacy with mental, physical and addictive disorders. Although the show appears to be documentary in nature, it obviously spun the stories to indicate that the celibates featured had made a strange, culturally deficient decision when choosing to abstain from sex. This irks me as I chose celibacy until I was married myself. It was by far the best decision for me and I resent the way Mtv presented it. So, here is my take on True Life: I Was Celibate until Marriage.

Growing up in Christian home, I was always taught that sex was to be enjoyed between a husband and wife in a marriage, and not before. That did stick in the back of my mind, but I wasn't what you would call the honor student Christian in my teenage years. I was very curious and experimental with most aspects of my life, regardless of my religious upbringing. However, something about celibacy just held a special place in my moral code. Like most teenagers, the typical scare tactics of warning against addiction, accidents, diseases and such didn't really hit home with my invincible mindset. In this childish mindset, I really didn't see the negative aspects happenings and didn't see how abstaining from drinking, cursing, or reckless driving was going to benefit me any, so I experimented. On the flip side though, several people during my formative years did explain to me celibacy benefits that stuck for some reason. They didn't use negative consequences to sell me on the idea. They focused on the positives that would come out of a life of celibacy until marriage. And now that I'm married, I can say all of these benefits came to fruition.