' Do you know that your body is a
temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from
God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought
with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.'
(1
Corinthians 6:19-20)
Consider young
people who become sexually mature, who know new powers and
new yearnings. Let us pray that they may honour their
bodies as gifts from God; not shy away from but welcome
the new possibilities which maturity brings, and discover
the freedom to remain in charge of what they do.
Think with
understanding and sympathy of pressures on them to conform
to the standards and tastes of their peer group and of the
difficult test of coping with their continuing dependency
on elders and balancing that with the need to find
personal identity and assert independence.
Pray especially
for those who have had no framework of family discipline
against which to work out new freedoms; and those whose
lives have been so tightly controlled that they are
tempted either to conform tamely or rebel outrageously.
Pray for
parents in the difficult task of helping young people
through this stage. Pray for the Church that it may give
young people space and voice, imaginative support, and
uphold them by prayer and sensitive understanding.
Examine yourself concerning.:
-- your ability
to delight in your sexuality, expressing it so that it is
a blessing, not a curse to others;
-- your ability
to empathize with young people, giving them the space they
need and still be someone they can turn to.
'Search
me, 0 God, and know my heart, try me and know my
thoughts; and see whether there is any wicked way in me:
and lead me in the way everlasting.' (Psalm 139. 2 3-24)
