Purity: A Letter for the Courageous

"Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good for man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.' ... So the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and He closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and He brought her to the man."

- Genesis 2:18, 21 & 22

Women who love the Lord know that they have an irreplaceable call to help men who love the Lord. Men who love the Lord know that they have an irreplaceable need to be helped by women who love the Lord. And so a team is made! Marriage is the sacred creation of an inseperable team for God's glory. Before marriage we who love the Lord can already be serving our future teammate rather than following the culture's pattern of using our single time for our own personal advancement. How do we do this?

Prayer.

I dare to believe that the following is a letter that every wife and future wife who loves the Lord would gladly sign.

Ladies - Though mocked by society around us for the desire and hope we have in Christ that our men will be abandoned to Him, let us continue in our prayers for each of them. Through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit may we be the helpers that they need today.

Dear Husband,

I pray for you with zeal and determination. Simply being a man in this culture puts you at a disadvantage spiritually. You were created and designed for one woman; to desire her and be desired by her. And thus, being designed to respond a certain way to female charms, bodies, and behavior you have been bombarded by temptations to respond to these things with women who are not the 'one'. I'm not naive enough to think you've never given into those temptations to one degree or another.

Now, since you're my husband I already know a few things about you:

1.) You're lovingly committed to Jesus Christ.

2.) Through Him you're noble and honorable.

3.) You love me and regret your past sinful behavior toward and thoughts about other women.

Know this- I am humbly grateful for the virtuous man that God is making you. As I become more aware of all that you're up against, I become increasingly furious at the sin and temptations. As a result I'm coming before my Almighty, holy, and just God and saying, "Lord, load me up! Arm me with pistols loaded with purity, rifles loaded with holy fervor, and a shiny badge that reads 'Lady Deputy of the Sacred King of Kings'." I am ready to regulate through the enabling power of Jesus Christ; to stand for His righteousness; to take shots at the temptations men face and to never be one of them again!

Someday I'll need you to be my studly and godly protector. In the meantime I need to protect you and other men now by not passively sitting by as women walk around begging your eyes to follow, your mind to linger, and your heart to weaken. I need to stand and speak against the ridicule you face for not laughing at crass jokes, watching dirty films, and perusing perverse magazines. Although society accuses you of weakness for not joining in on their demeaning sport let me assure you that saying a resounding "NO!" to such things only proves your heavenly strength and unmatchable Christ-like masculinity!

I want my future sons to have an example of heroic purity; the kind that starts with the guarding of eyes and ears, the captivation of every thought, and then the guarding of every action. I want them to have an example of the kind of heroic purity that fuels a fire for protecting set-apart femininity; an example of the kind of heroic purity that fuels a driving desire to withstand temptation and allow no shadows in their lives. I want my future sons to have an example of heroic purity that inspires them to preserve their eyes, minds, hearts, and bodies for their future wives alone. I pray the same for you now.

I love you. I respect you. I know you belong to the Lord. I will fight for His glory by your side. I fight for you today.

Authentically,
your (plucky) lady

*picture credits: weddingbycolor.com


Sanctified and Surrendered by Caitlin Marie Stacy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.