Re: Love
Submitted by Ben on August 08 1999 at 07:09:32
In reply to Love Submitted by Old Bill on August 07 1999 at 17:38:45
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Hi Bill - I've read a few of your posts, here and down below. Certainly, you must outweigh me in life experiences at least twofold. I appreciate your sentimentality and your pragmatism, but I believe that they are based on your own intuitions and gut feelings rather than on a greater standard. The bible does not identify God as love in the bible, though love is clearly central to understanding God. God wants us to love our neighbors, true, but what he wants most is for us to love him. We show our love to God, not by being drawn in to the temptations of the world (including our genital ones), but by denying ourselves and turning our love to God. In doing this, God certainly blesses us in many ways. This is the single greatest theme in the Old Testament. Sex between people is good, and it is what God intended us to do. However, he created sex so that we would be bound to our spouse, not so that we could have whatever sex we want. Our bodies will deceive us into believing that we love someone who we are attracted to, have had sex with, or have dreamed about in masterbation. Take it from one who was very caught up in this type of life: It isn't love. I am not saying that you cannot love a child! You can and you should. But you can love someone deeply in a non-sexual way, and only by loving someone in that way, do you separate out the love from the attraction. I am glad that you were not adversely affected by intimate experiences when you were a boy. I agree that children should not have to feel guilt about childhood experiences and I also agree that such experiences are dramaticized by societal stigma. I firmly believe though, that children are far better off being raised in an environment that is loving and affectionate, but devoid of sexual experience. For me, it has taken 20 years to undo the damage that a little childhood masterbation created. Are you trusting the God who created you or are you trusting the God that you have created for yourself in your own heart? You are not alone. 
Ben |