Encouragement To Stay Strong In Virginity

This was given in response to a facebook post https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151616126209315&set=a.10150579571414315.385485.313039474314&type=1&theater which read

"  Dear Admin,
Am i normal?? Am a virgin of 21 and nt into any relationship..i feel depressed, ashamed nd stupid for abstaining till marriage, becos i feel i made a bad decision and i dnt hav frndz again coz am still a virgin.most of dem think am 'Old school' its really getting to me becos i dnt hav anybody to talk to most times! What should i do??
Plz dnt include my name ..Godbless  "


My response was this :


There is a game called Super Mario where you collect gold rings and part of the punishment when you get hit is that all your precious collected gold rings get spilled out over the floor and become wasted, unrecoverable. Your precious gift is like that - it is something that you are carrying with you and is precious and you do not want it to become something wasted, something dirty, something useless for the future. People in the world do not value virginity but to Christ it is something of very high value. Believe me there is a BIG difference between someone who is a virgin through choice and someone who is unable to interact with the opposite sex! Christ sees your voluntary withholding of that gift until marriage as something of great price and great value. Just because you do not have a soul partner right now with whom you can share your life, your intimate thoughts and moments does NOT mean that Christ will not move on your behalf if you remain faithful!!! Virginity is a precious, precious gift and one to be highly esteemed and valued and, indeed, treasured. Many women and men are actually, like you, seeking a like-minded partner in these things. Many women and men do despair in these things and give up but equally many treasure and are carrying that gift - be like them!!! It's a matter of the heart and a posture before God - either this IS REAL and it REALLY IS WORTH SERVING CHRIST or we are wasting our time. Personally I just want to remind you that the devil wants to destroy marriages just as much as he wants single people to commit immorality, and ONE OF THE BEST DEFENCES WITH WHICH TO BUILD A STRONG MARRIAGE IS VIRGINITY BEFOREHAND. When I think of my wife and myself and our marriage and the testing times that it has gone through, one of the great stabilising factors in our marriage has been, that although we have had problems, yet underlying it all is a sexual commitment one to another which was evidenced in my virginity before marriage (at age 31, no less). This gives us a great peace and confidence and trust within our marriage that we can relax with each other and not be interfering with each other all the time scared and paranoid that our other partner will go out and commit adultery - no, there is that level of trust that what we honoured before marriage we will also honour after marriage. I was a virgin and my wife was a single mum but she had lived six+ years as a second-time virgin since her born-again experience, so I counted that the same, to me, as a virgin also. Hope that encourages you. God bless and stay strong ! ! ! ! !