Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. English Standard Version (ESV)

“The most successful marriage is a marriage where forgiveness is often sought and richly given.”

“Behind virtually every case of marital dissatisfaction lies unrepented sin. Couples don’t fall out of love so much as they fall out of repentance.”

“Follow these steps for getting over the guilt of an abortion: remembering, confessing, and renouncing the sin (Proverbs 28:13), asking forgiveness (Psalm 25:11), accepting forgiveness (Psalm 130:3-4), and releasing your child to God (Mark 10:14).”

“Sexual impurity isn’t like a tumor growing out of control inside us. We treat it that way when our prayers focus on deliverance, as we plead for someone to come remove it. Actually, sexual impurity is a series of bad decisions on our part—a result of immature character—and deliverance won’t deliver you into instant maturity. Character work needs to be done.”

“Covering over sin involves the choice consciously and purposely to turn our eyes away from the transgression, without ignoring or denying the damage. Peter tells us, ‘Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins’ (1 Peter 4:8).”

“A couple with a history of premarital sex has established their union on a foundation of sand--that of hedonism. 'Hedonism' means the pursuit of personal pleasure. When personal pleasure is the root of intimacy, everything springing up from that root will be tainted with deficiency.”

“Enjoying in premarital sex creates a hindrance to healthy marital sex, may cause health problems, increases the risk of infidelity, and intensifies family difficulties.”

“The word virgin means pure. Even after a woman has yielded her virginity, she can become pure in her sexual thoughts and attitude, in her dress and demeanor, and how she relates to men. The blood of Jesus Christ can wash us clean and make our sins white as snow. Such a woman can become a virgin in every way but technically.”

“True repentance will lead to feelings of indignity and anger at the past damage, a desire to make restitution, and a renewed longing for purity and godliness (2 Corinthians 7:11).”

“When you forgive your mate’s failures, you give up your right to punish. Forgiveness is an act of the will—a deliberate choice that means you will not retaliate when you feel the other person has wronged you.”

“For some young married couples, financial difficulties may be exacerbated as a result of premarital sex. If a young man fathers a child out of wedlock, he must support that child financially. Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) require visits to the doctor. And STDs frequently cause infertility. If a young person suffering from an STD marries and wants children, it can lead to huge expenditures for fertility treatments and surgeries.”

“Until you become pure, until you think, speak, and live out God’s commands in the sexual area, you will always be consciously or unconsciously involved in false worship. Your worship will be for your desires and lust, and it will involve using people to accomplish the purpose of your worship, which is to satisfy yourself. Jesus flatly declared that no one can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24).”

“I, along with many other teens, had used unmarried sex to meet the legitimate longing for intimacy. Sensing the need inside, I had tried to fill it with a tangible relationship. What I didn’t realize was that all people are sinners, and no one could meet my need for total acceptance and love except God.”

“If we plant seeds of wanton lust, or seeds of using and abusing people, or seeds of indiscriminate sex and self-centered pleasure, we should not be surprised by the fields of toxic weeds that cover our lives. But if we want the harvest of a loving, deep, intimate relationship, we need to understand that a loving relationship demands sexual purity.”

“Never pry about the past, but let your spouse know you are always available to listen ... Details serve only to kindle the imagination, causing you to replay a scene or an event. They could tempt you to condemn your mate.”

“The past should not be a place where we live, but something from which we learn. We are to forget ‘those things which are behind’ and reach ‘forward to those things which are ahead,’ and we’re to ‘press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 3:13, 14). God is a redeemer and a restorer. We need to allow Him to be both. He can redeem the past and restore what was lost. He can make up for the bad things that had happened (Psalm 90:15).”