I Kissed Dating Goodbye
Hey, this is Jessica Itzel. I’m gonna talk about an idea that changed my life. No dating! A couple of months after my 13th birthday, my mom decided that I was ready to watch, ’’I Kissed Dating Good-bye.’’ She had told me about it way before then, but I didn’t realize how wonderful and amazing it was ‘till I did it. Thanks to Joshua Harris (the author), I have been able to learn how and why I should keep my purity and save it for my future spouse. I want to tell everyone who reads this about it. ’’I Kissed Dating Good-bye,’’is a way to live a pure, happy life.
What you do is: While you’re young don’t get all caught up in the ’’Who likes who,’’ and, ’’Does he have a crush on me,’’ and stuff like that. If your friends try to talk to you about all that, then try and change the subject. Just be friends and enjoy your teen years cuz the time you have won’t last very long. I mean, honestly, when you’re 14, it’s not like you’re gonna get married any time soon. You’ll just be wasting the time you could be using to serve God. I plan to save my 1st kiss for my wedding day. Not only will it make the day more meaningful, but also, it will help me not to be tempted to do anything I’d regret. It may be hard to do at times, but I trust that God will bring the right person into my life when the time comes.
It’s always good to have open communication with your parents cuz you’re gonna need them throughout your life. If you don’t have a good connection with your parents or if you can’t for any reason then it’s good to have mentor or a good Godly person that you can talk to and can give you advice like a family member, a church member, or your pastor.
Sometimes you may feel lonely or discouraged. Sometimes I feel that way. Even some of my extended family members and my best friends try to discourage me, but it helps me feel better when I think about all the people I’ve been able to influence. It also helps when I think of how I’m gonna be rewarded. 1 Timothy 4:12 says, ’’Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in PURITY.’’ I’m gonna use my single years to become a better Christian and serve God.
It doesn’t hurt to have friends who are boys or girls, but we need to love each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Some of you may be thinking, ’’Oh I’ve already made a mistake. ’’Maybe you’ve just done something small like you kissed someone or maybe your mistake is a lot bigger than that. Or maybe you’ve not made a mistake. Well which ever one describes you, don’t give up. God will forgive you cuz He loves you. You can’t change the past, but you can start over and change your future. I know it’s hard cause we’ll be under a lot of pressure from our friends trying to get us to cheat, and just go out on 1 date. They’ll say something like, ’’Oh it’s just 1 date; it won’t hurt.’’ I just put my hands over my ears and walk away. Like Joseph with Potiphar’s wife. She tried to tempt him but he just ran away from sin. I admire him greatly and God blessed his determination.
Just recently, I listened to the cds of ‘’I Kissed Dating Good-bye.’’ I listened to it cuz it has a lot of things the videos didn’t have. It’s good to hear different points of view on purity. It’ll give you different opinions about the matter. It’ll also help you explain it (like I’m doing right now) to other people who might be interested in it. Some of the other purity books I’ve read are, Passion and Purity, Wait For Me, and Dating Mr. Darcy. All these books encourage people to keep their purity and save it for their future spouse.
If you ever feel like you’re the only one thinking about doing this then don’t. There are lots of people who do it like the Christian artists, Barlow Girl, Rebecca St. James, and lots more. If you feel like ‘’I Kissed Dating Good-bye’’ is something you’d be interested in doing, then I suggest you watch the videos first, then listen to the cds. If you have any questions about anything then you can e-mail me at info@billandkarenitzel.com.
Jessica 
November 29th, 2006