Are you sick of the pressure you feel to look perfect and be sexy?
Do you think you have to be sexual to be cool?
Here, you are going to learn ways to free yourself from the things the media says you have to do to be accepted. It’s time to stand up and fight for something you cherish–your purity.
The On Purity column will post on the first Saturday of each month. Hope you’ll follow along and join in the discussion.
I’m glad you’re here!
Sherri Wilson Johnson is a former homeschooling mom of two young adults and she is passionate about purity. She is from Georgia and has been married since 1988. She loves to write, read, eat ice cream, ride roller coasters and make people laugh. She loves her family and her dogs but Jesus most of all and hopes to spread His love to the whole world through her writing.
The FDA has approved the Plan B emergency contraception pill for fifteen year olds without a prescription and without the permission of their parents. If a pregnancy is suspected, a quick trip to the local pharmacy can “take care of all worries” and those in authority will be none the wiser. President Obama said, “I’m very comfortable with the decision.”
As a teen, you may have heard about this pill and other forms of contraception in school. Here’s the thing: at fifteen, you can’t drive a car without a parent or other responsible adult in it with you. You’re not allowed in theaters to see R rated movies, which often contain the very behavior that causes the need for the Plan B pill.
So doesn’t it seem odd that the FDA and the government would consider a fifteen year old too immature to be allowed into certain movies and not mature enough to drive a vehicle alone, yet you would be allowed to take a pill to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in your uterus without consulting your parents first? I suppose part of the reasoning behind this is that every woman should have the right to choose what to do with her own body.… continue reading
These days, the lines between love and sex are blurred. Teens are pressured into giving of themselves just to prove that they love someone. They also use their sexuality to gain popularity or to feel loved in return. The media has tainted our views on love, sex, and the importance of remaining pure for marriage. It has also blurred the lines between what sex is and what it isn’t. The media hides the truth that sex is created by God for marriage as a way to demonstrate Christ’s love for the Church.
Purity is something that doesn’t happen by accident. You don’t stumble upon purity like you might stumble upon a good sale on shoes at the mall. It’s something that takes intentionality. I know it’s hard and I want to offer as much encouragement to you as possible. I thought you might enjoy hearing from someone this month other than me—from someone who is a teen living her life with purity in mind.
So today, I present to you teen novelist, Kaylie Hathaway. She’s sixteen-years-old and is going to share with us a little about what purity means to her. Here’s our interview:
Sherri: Kaylie, first of all, tell us briefly a little about you.… continue reading
In the 1700s, if you wore green on St. Patrick’s Day the leprechauns couldn’t see you. If you forgot and they saw you, they’d pinch you.
When I was in Middle School in the 1980s (yes, I know that was a long time ago), St. Patrick’s Day was a huge deal. If you didn’t wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, you were in trouble and unbelievably sore from all the pinching when you got home at the end of the day. Yep, you were really sorry if you didn’t wear green that day.
With St. Patrick’s Day coming this month, you might be thinking about what you’re going to wear that day so you don’t get pinched. You want to make sure you have something green on just in case.
Another thing that was common on St. Patrick’s Day when I was a teen was to say “Kiss Me, I’m Irish”. This goes back to the kissing of the Blarney stone. Kissing this stone was thought to be lucky. If you couldn’t kiss the stone, the next best thing was kissing an Irish person.
When I was in high school, I had a pin that I would wear that said “Kiss Me, I’m Irish”.… continue reading
Have you ever tried to talk to someone while you’re brushing your teeth? You know what you’re trying to say but the recipient of your little chat doesn’t have a clue what’s coming out of your mouth?
Talking with your parents about sexual issues can feel like you’re talking the “toothpaste talk”. You want to ask a question so that you better understand things but you don’t want your parents to misunderstand what you’re saying and end up jumping down your throat and accusing you of something you’re not doing. Maybe you have done some things you regret and you can’t hold it back any longer but, again, you’re afraid what you say might not be heard in the way you are saying it.
Perhaps you feel like your parents are the ones talking with toothbrushes in their mouths. They might be trying to give you guidance but you’re interpreting it as judgment or rules, rules, rules. Toothpaste talk.
We all know how important communication is and if we’re talking with a toothbrush in our mouths and toothpaste foam bubbling out, then no one is going to understand us. And we won’t understand them.… continue reading
I’m sure you’ve heard of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. You’ve probably either read the book or watched the movie at some point in your life.
In this classic, Dorothy lives with her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em in Kansas. She and her little dog Toto long for happier days or at least a little excitement to their humdrum life. One day they, along with the farmhouse, are taken up in a tornado and plunked down in Munchkin territory, right outside of the Land of Oz. When they exit the house, Dorothy discovers that she has squished the Wicked Witch of the East. (Photo to the right copyright Kayla Johnson.)
The Good Witch of the North gives Dorothy the magic slippers that the dead Witch had been wearing. Dorothy wants to return home and get out of this crazy place but before she can do so she has to go to the Emerald City and ask the Wizard of Oz to help her. The Good Witch gives her a kiss and sends her along her way down the yellow brick road. Dorothy happens upon the Scarecrow, the Tinman, and the Cowardly Lion. Each of these characters has his own worries and doubts and Dorothy has to forget about her own troubles momentarily to help them with theirs.… continue reading
The Passion Conference is an annual conference for young adults to bring them together to worship and receive strong messages from the Word, spurring them on to change their worlds for the Lord. It also gives young people an opportunity to raise funds to help fight hunger, homelessness, human trafficking and sex slavery. Did you know there was such a thing as slavery today? According to Passion’s website, as of January 2012 there were over 27 million slaves in the world.
What? Yep, you heard me right. Real slaves! Until I learned about this, I thought of slavery as something that was abolished with the Civil War. Well, I was wrong. Every day people are taken into slavery. Every day girls and young women are taken from local malls, bus stops, and street corners. Not all of them are taken by strangers though. Some of these young women are lured gradually by men calling themselves their boyfriends and claiming to love them with all their hearts. The result: they are sold into sex slavery.
Why do I mention this on my purity blog? Well, these girls and young women do not have a choice when it comes to remaining pure, guarding their bodies, or saying no.… continue reading
By Sherri Wilson Johnson
Have you ever heard the phrase “You only live once”? Well, it’s true! And so I believe that you should live life to the fullest and not let yourself be weighed down with things that make your days stressful, sad, angry or just plain old miserable.
Now, of course, there are things that are beyond our control that try to make us hate our lives and wish for the future. Things like: dreaded courses in school, fights with your diva friends, parents who won’t let you stay out past curfew, boys who won’t like you no matter what you try…you get my point. Some of those things we have no control over. Some of them we do. But one thing is for certain, we can always control the way we react to each situation. Stressing over the little things in life ages you!
Just because I recommend that you live life to the fullest and enjoy your youth doesn’t mean I’m advocating running wild and fulfilling everything on your bucket list by tomorrow. I’m also not giving you license to dishonor your parents or God.… continue reading
This month we are focusing on the T in purity. So guess what we’re going to talk about? TICKS.
I live in Georgia. We have ticks here. We have BAD problems with ticks. I mean, in the summer, they are everywhere. They latch onto you with their tiny mouths, stick their teeth into you, and refuse to let go.
My worst experience with ticks happened a few years ago when my family took a camping trip to Panama City Beach in Florida. It was after a hurricane came through the Gulf of Mexico and mosquitoes and ticks were at plague proportions. Well, not really. But you get my point. I woke up the first morning with ticks all over me and with over a hundred mosquito bites. I was miserable. I had heebie geebies, creepy crawlies, and every other feeling you can imagine.
Ticks–you can’t avoid them. But you can repel them.
Do you have ticks that try to suck the purity right out of you? You know what I’m talking about. Those friends who think it’s archaic to hang onto your first kiss. Your classmates who says you can go “this far” and still be a virgin.… continue reading
Have you ever heard the phrase “Monkey see, monkey do”?
Have you ever seen a mother duck with her baby ducklings following along in a row behind her?
Doing what someone does can be either good or bad, just like following along behind someone can be either positive or negative. It’s easy to say you shouldn’t do what someone does if it’s bad or follow the wrong person. It’s a totally different thing, and difficult at that, to actually do it! It takes a lot of determination to stay straight.
We all are influenced by the things around us, as we’ve already learned in the previous months. And whether you think so or not, you influence others. This month we’re going to talk about how that influence relates to purity.
We know that we can influence others by our actions and by our words. People are watching us everywhere we go. If we do something illegal or unethical and someone sees us, then we’ve influenced them for the bad. We’ve definitely affected our reputation, if nothing else. When we represent God at school, church, and in our neighborhoods, then we’ve influenced people for the good. When it comes to purity, we influence people of all ages and both sexes.
Respect in Relationships Leads to Purity
Today, teens, we’re going to spend a little time on the R in purity. R is for RESPECT. You’ve all heard Aretha Franklin sing R-E-S-P-E-C-T, I’m sure. If not, I know you’ve heard Kelly Clarkson sing it. Right? That song tells the story of a woman who wants her man to respect her when she comes home from work at the end of the day. Well, we all want to be respected. Respect is a good thing.
Today, we’re going to dig into several areas of respect that go far beyond what Aretha was singing about and we’ll see how they lead to purity.
First, before anyone can respect you, you need to respect yourself. That’s right. You must see yourself as a beautiful daughter of the Lord. One who deserves to be treated kindly, gently and respectfully. A young woman who respects herself will behave with discretion.
Proverbs 11:22 says: Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.
Look closely at that verse. It doesn’t say that a woman without discretion is a pig. No! It says a woman with no discretion is like the GOLD RING being sported around in a pig’s nose!… continue reading
Welcome back to our series on purity. This month we’ll focus on the U in purity. I’ve selected the word UNDERSTANDING for our acrostic. Why? I believe it’s important for you to understand exactly what it means to be pure. We’ve talked about it before. The world has all kinds of definitions for purity and Satan wants to fool you into thinking you can go “this far” and still be pure.
There are a lot of areas in your life where purity is involved.
Examples:
These are all good things.
Today we’re talking about understanding what sexual purity is though. Purity’s definition is: the absence of impurity. We need to know what impurity is so we can know if it has filtered into our lives.… continue reading
Welcome to the first in a series of posts on purity written specifically for you. Over the months ahead we’re going to break down the word PURITY using an acronym. We’re going to see that you can stay pure without being a loser and without having to live in a bubble. You can look fashionable and have lots of friends and admirers but still be a Godly young person.
Last month I posted my first post over on the parent side of this blog. I talked about my dating history and why purity is so important to me. Here’s the link in case you want to read it: On Inspiring Purity.
I’ll tell you a few quick tidbits about my life. As a teen, I thought of boys every day, all day. I was boy-crazy. I wanted a boyfriend and if I had one, I wanted a different one. I spent so much time thinking about boys that I neglected my school work and my spiritual walk. And I didn’t think about the fact that I was earning a bad reputation. Although I was pure, my actions left room for doubt.
Now I’m a mom of two young adults who’ve been raised to value their time, reputation, and purity.… continue reading
Have you ever found yourself in the middle of the “if only” trap? I have. It started when I was in the sixth grade and sometimes I still get in this trap as a 37 year old wife and mother. Here are some of the “if only’s” that have gone through my mind over the years: If only I… [read more]
Cleanse – v. to rid of impurities by washing, meaning to purify By Laura L Smith The first time I heard about doing a “cleanse” I was in high school reading my first copy of French Elle (feeling tres chic and sophisticated, I might add). It involved eating only raw foods, like carrot st… [read more]
Without Fear by @LauraKurk The post you’re reading right now was written in April. A week and a half after the Boston Marathon bombings and a week after the tragic explosion in West, Texas (one hour north of me). At the moment, our nation is still reeling. Maybe by the time this post goes l… [read more]
| Choose NOW Ministries | Choose NOW Radio | Choose NOW (secret) | Choose NOW Store |
Privacy Policy |
Parent Talk |
TBA 6/1--come back to find |
Charitable giving |
What we Believe |
Teen Talk |
TBA 6/1--out what the |
Submit a product for consideration |
Terms and Conditions |
Best of CNR |
TBA 6/1--big announcement |
Return Policy |
Contact Us |
Suggest a Guest |
TBA 6/1--is on June 1st! |
|
| Who are we? | How does it work? | ||
Nicole O'Dell |
Submit a guest post |
|
|
Book Nicole for an event |
Become a Columnist |
||
List of Contributors |
Advertise with us |
   |
|
Press Releases & Media |
FAQs |
|
