Just a Taste

My little man is a big fruit eater and absolutely loves almost any kind of fruit, especially berries. As he’s getting older he now has the ability to invade the kitchen and search at will, frequently opening the refrigerator and climbing inside to find fruit. There may be blackberries from two weeks ago, with white fur growing on them, stuffed behind the bread and last night’s leftover meatloaf and mashed potatoes, yet he’ll see them from three feet below.

It was during one of these recent raids, he discovered my fresh bag of cranberries in the produce drawer and asked about them. I explained they were cranberries, but they weren’t very good to eat out of the bag and that mommy would make something tasty with them. I believe all he heard was that they were berries, and every day since he has dragged that bag out of the frig to ask me for some.

Today he pulled them out and started badgering me again. I finally agreed to let him try one. He watched excitedly as I tore a small hole in the plastic bag and commented on how they looked like strawberries. I agreed they looked very pretty and handed him a red berry. He started to walk away, but I stopped him so I could see his reaction when he tasted it, which didn’t take long to come. Of course I laughed and even at three he’s a good sport and laughed too, though sadly it reminded me of how pretty things can lure us away from the truth and protection of God’s word, and just as little man didn’t trust me, we often don’t trust God, though he has tried to warn us, especially when it comes to sex. Flee from sexual immorality, he says. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 1Corinthians 6:18 NIV

This verse speaks specifically to the pain we cause ourselves in pursuing the pleasures of sex outside of the security of a committed, marital relationship, yet many have shunned this advice as dated and irrelevant in today’s progressive culture. We have out-reasoned God and suffer the tragic consequences of that reasoning. I don’t say that to criticize anyone. I once lived in that culture, chasing relationships without regard for God’s thoughts on the matter. I was a Christian, but I believed the lie of the feminists who said sexual freedom empowers women and promotes equality between the sexes, when in truth the opposite has occurred. As the Bible says, Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. Romans 1:22 NIV

Of course we all known people who do not live by these rules, yet appear to have that dream life with a doting spouse, successful children and a Pinterest perfect home. Though it doesn’t change the fact that our cultural dating practices promote self-gratification, superficial connections and a lack of commitment, and so many more don’t end up in those beautiful photographic lives. I will even go so far as to suggest that many of our society’s biggest social problems stem from this one area of our lives. If more people followed God’s plan for our sexuality, there would be fewer unplanned pregnancies, fewer abortions, fewer children born into poverty without a father, fewer single mothers struggling to make ends meet and fewer angry and hurting people who have grown up in broken situations and are a risk to society as a whole. For me, sex outside of marriage complicated every relationship I was ever in, and added layers of hurt to the pain of my past. For those like me, situations that beat the odds promote the idea that sex outside of marriage has no consequences and perpetuate the fantasy that maybe the next relationship will be better, though just as my little man discovered there’s a biting truth that speaks against those odds for so many.