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True Love Waits meshes ockey, Valentine’s Day


OKLAHOMA CITY (BP)–A standing-room-only crowd of teenagers packed into an upstairs room at the Myriad Convention Center in Oklahoma City on Valentine’s night to express their commitment to sexual purity through Southern Baptists’ True Love Waits campaign.
The rally was a prelude to the Oklahoma City Blazers hockey game, where it was announced the young people were in attendance.
The public address announcement before the game said: “The Fellowship of Christian Athletes along with 700 young people are here celebrating Valentine’s Day and True Love Waits, their commitment to stay sexually pure from this day until they are married.”
Youth from across the state came to sing praises, hear testimonies and sign cards testifying to their desire to remain sexually pure until marriage during the hour-long rally sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Worth the Wait Ministries.
Fox 25 news anchor Kirsten McIntyre showed the youth several self-help books on love, then held up a copy of the Bible, saying, “There are all kinds of self-help books, but there is only one we should go to.”
After reading 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter, she said the Bible is clear about taking a stand on purity.
The 29-year-old emphasized that doing what is right is not always the easy alternative. “I’ve been there,” said McIntyre, who confessed she has had broken relationships with men because of her sexual stand.
“I’m still waiting,” she said. “I’m praying God will bring the right man into my life.”
A Christian since she was 10 years old, McIntyre said there is something that is even more important than being sexually pure and that is a personal relationship with Jesus.
“God needs to cleanse your heart first,” she emphasized. “First, God calls you to be his child.”
The Oklahoma Baptist University graduate added there are reasons God calls us to purity.
“It’s for our protection,” she shared. “He wants to protect us from teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and excess baggage.
“Life has enough baggage as it is. Why add to it?”
McIntyre stressed teenagers who already have had a sexual experience can have a second chance.
“God is a God of second chances,” she said. “If you’ve already messed up, come back, confess your sins and move on.”
Pulling out a yellowed sheet of paper, she said in 1985 she wrote a pledge to herself: “I declare myself single until I’m at least 25.”
“Sometimes it takes a written pledge to yourself to make it real.”
Of the 672 at the rally, 412 signed commitment cards which read: “Believing that true love waits, I make a commitment to God, myself, my family, my friends, my future mate and my future children to be sexually abstinent from this day until the day I enter a biblical marriage relationship.”

    About the Author

  • Dana Williamson