a new perspective

I guess I wonder why I didn't realize this before: "guarding your heart" isn't really dating advice. It isn't placed in the Bible in order to help a person find "the one." No, that's silly! It's about something much more than that, and actually, so is dating/marriage/whatever.

A pure heart is not something that you keep only until your marriage day to "give to your wife." Virginity and a pure heart are very different things. Virginity is the word used to describe the status of one who has never had sex. Sex (in its proper context) does not corrupt a pure heart in the way that it corrupts one's virgin status!

One gives his/her virginity to his/her spouse; however, a pure heart is something one reserves as Corban (a gift) to God. A pure heart has to do with one's righteousness and character and I tend to see as a lot more important than one's virgin status.

The call to guard your heart is a call to protect your entire person. Intimacy is not the only pollution nor the only possible corruption to one's person. Egoism can corrupt. Materialism can corrupt. Hedonism can corrupt. Excessive anger can, too. You get my point; any sin can corrupt one's heart. (This is because one's heart is not the center of emotion so much as it is the center of a person.) What's a sin? Anything action may or may not be a sin, so let's not get caught up in definitions! There is no dating rule book, outside of the Bible and your personal relationship with God--and those should already be your directing beacons.

Can't believe it took so long for that to click.