Help Pastor Josh!  My student wants to date!  How can I be sure that they remain pure in their heart and in their body?  That's a great question, and it is one that I have heard so many times during the course of the past 11 years I have spent ministering to students and families.

The easy answer is to simply tell them "WHAT" they should do without taking the time to connect and share the "WHY" and the "HOW" as well.

Why do I want to be pure?  Why should I avoid overly 'it's complicated' relationships in Junior High (yes I said Junior High) and in High School?  Because if we remain pure, we can experience The BIG Payoff!

This month at E3, we are in a series entitled, "The BIG Payoff".  What's that Josh?  The BIG Payoff is God’s best, God’s plan, His dream for your life that will satisfy you like nothing else can. In this case, it's God's dream for your future spouse and your future relationship.

God cares about that?  This is a question I see in the eyes of our students when I share on this subject.  YES!  He cares about every aspect of our lives!  He knows that you have a dream to experience a great marriage relationship with the right person!  Even though society has done a lot to discourage this dream in the hearts of our students, I find that overwhelmingly students want a good marriage one day even if they have suffered because of the dysfunction in their own parents' relationship.

God wants to fulfill that dream that they have in their hearts.  How that comes to pass is often the challenge for our kids.  Because they're so desperate for love and acceptance, they can find themselves 'settling' for something less than God's best.  They don't have to do that!

So I'm encouraging them to dream!  To dream about an incredible future, knowing that God can be trusted to bring those things to past. How can I know God can be trusted?

Psalm 37:4 (NCV)  Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

When our students Encounter God's great love for them personally, it will change their life forever!  If we want our students to remain pure in their hearts and in their body, they must know just how much they are loved by a great Big God who can bless their lives in greater ways that they could have even imagined if they will 'take delight' in Him!