Abstinence…..It’s Worth the Wait!!

Today my husband and I celebrate our first wedding anniversary; and let me say that the year has flown by! 🙂 I reminisce to when we were dating. Being a single christian is a challenge for so many. It was a challenge for me. I remember when the conviction became strong because I was singing on the Praise team and sleeping with my husband (then boyfriend). The decision to become abstinent was not an easy one. It was not the popular decision and at that time marriage was no where in the future. I had to stand on what the word of God said regardless of what my flesh said.

I remember to this day when I told him that God was convicting me and we should stop having sex. I really didn’t know what his reaction would be. He was raised the same way but he said he wasn’t as convicted as I was. After thinking it over for three days (three of the longest days of my life), he said “I am not as convicted as you are but what we have is valuable and for me to ask you to change your mind is to ask you to choose me over God and I can’t ask you to do that”…..God had already said he was a keeper 🙂

The first year was challenging, we had one slip up. I realized that I had to surrender fully to this decision and focus. So I buckled down…the flesh is a beast if you don’t put some boundaries and parameters in place. That meant no kissing, no romance novels, no sleeping over, staying away from certain movies etc.

For two years before we got married, we remained abstinent. Our love and friendship deepened and I realize that this is what God intended the single/marriage process to be about. If your relationship is built on God, love, trust, respect and friendship,…then sex is just the icing on the cake.

Within those two years I taught the youth at my church. This held me even more accountable. I didn’t want to taint my testimony of the change God was working in me, neither did I want to be a hypocrite before them. We even started purity sessions with them; ‘true love waits’.

Well my husband surprised me with a beautiful diamond ring on Christmas eve of 2011 🙂 It was worth the wait.I am typically laid back and didn’t want to make a big deal. But then I realized that so many of my brothers and sisters struggle in this area and it’s worth celebrating when we take a stand for God and God comes through (so many times the negative things get highlighted). It is worth the wait…and when we take a stand for God, He will always take a stand for us.

Christmas Eve engagement surprise 🙂

This post is littered with photos taken through out my wedding process. I love photos!! My husband is not a big photo guy, so I used our free engagement shoot and the girls and I did a 70’s themed shoot. We had a blast 🙂

70’s photo shoot

God is awesome, my marriage is a blessing, God didn’t just give me the person that I needed, He gave me the person that I wanted as well. It’s truly a blessing. And I realize that the more I surrender to God the better my marriage is. I pray that God will enable me to continue to be his ‘good’ thing.

When we take a stand for God, He will take a stand for us 🙂

Happy Anniversary to my forever guy, I love you. ♥