"Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Proverbs 31: 31

There are a great many things in this life that can feel virtually impossible to attain. Purity can be one of them.

It's a complex verb isn't it, Purity? One supposes that the first thing that springs to mind is sexual purity. We are all called as followers of Christ to sacrifice our bodies and our thoughts to God, surrendering the joy of that precious gift that he gave at the beginning of the earth.

There seems to me to be a fear in contemporary society about being Pure. Even with Christians. The fear seems to be of losing character, vibrancy, adventure, energy, passion and life. That might seem ridiculous, but it has often been said (and experienced in some cases) that with something so difficult to reach as purity, we become prepared to sacrifice our whole selves in order to clear away any debris that gets in the way of that goal. I've spoken to many guys about their attitudes to sexuality within Christian relationships; some rather vehemently believe they wouldn't want to touch whoever they are dating with a barge pole in terms of physicality in the relationship. Others are appalled at the idea of denying their sexuality, and actually fear it would damage a ladies sense of self if they did, leaving them to believe they are undesirable, unattractive.

And what about women? On my only personal note of this blog, from my perspective, the perception of women in the Church who are unmarried and who are 'sexual' - i.e. have sexual feelings/desires - is that they must be impure. The Bible does say..."For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword...she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it." Proverbs 5:3-6 This is Solomon speaking in relation the adultress, however I have spoken to some women who do feel this is the way they are looked upon because of their feelings. Does a woman having a sexual history make her less deserving of a caring and compassionate husband? NO, of course not. But how do we do it? We can’t change our pasts. We can’t often change our feelings. We cannot be anything more, nor anything less.

I've also observed that along with fixing our eyes upon the goal of purity, we raise our expectations of others. It's very easy for those around us perhaps not making the same sacrifices to appear weak. In terms of romantic relationships, many of us may set our hopes high for a partner who is pure in body and in soul, and anyone 'less than' that is just not 'the one'. Is that fair? Jesus said, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone?" I'm not saying that we should 'settle' in our hopes and dreams for a future husband or wife, but we rewrite that definition of Purity when we judge others next to our own expectations. And its not a good defination. In fact, its pretty hurtful and damaging.

So then how do we do it? God is compassionate yet ferocious. I'm sure he doesn't 'let us off the hook' for our foolishness, however one of my favourite verses in the Bible is "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:9. What do we say then? "I'm impure. In this life I always will be. But I’m trying my very best." Is that enough?

These are just some thoughts. Not really opinions of mine or any kind of preach. Just thoughts. Any more thoughts welcomed.