We just received this in our email:
…My story is that I started this challenge on Feb.15th, before I even heard of the church wide challenge. I am a Christian and have been for 16 years now, and have remained abstinent throughout those years. But when I got engaged we started toying with the idea that we are going to get married so it doesn’t really matter right? I just want to say, from experience, that it does matter!! If you are already sexually active when you get married, then what is there to look forward to on your wedding night? It will just be another night together. Because I now have this mindset, I sat my fiance down and talked to him. I said that I wanted our wedding night to be something we looked forward to. Something exciting and amazing!!! Not just another night like the rest. So we made a commitment to abstain from ALL sexual activity until our wedding night. And we were especially not allowed to tease each other, because that would lead to too much. So we are just passing week one and he is already telling me how much he can’t wait to get married!!! And I know I can’t either! We will be married on March 15th and I know it will be wonderful!! I just wanted to say that I think this challenge is a Great idea and thank ya’ll for creating such a buzz about it!
I’m not sure this is a good mindset to have. I’m married, and honestly, the first night was amazing (though maybe not in the way I’d expected), but I think so many abstinent Christians think that holding out on sex until the wedding night is going to make it this super-great hollywood-style night of passionate sex. It’s not. It’s still going to be awkward, and probably painful. So if you wait and wait (as I did), and put so much emphasis on the physical appeal of that night, I think you’re doing actually exposing your marriage to a big risk, because waiting shouldn’t be about that first night. It should be about all the days and nights from that point on.