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Rebecca St. James is a romantic. But the singer, 24, hasn't found the man of her dreams yet. Ever since she was 15 years old, Rebecca has been writing love letters to her future husband, penning her promise to abstain from sex until marriage.

The pledge that "I'm waiting for you and I'm praying for you, Wait for me, too," is personal—but not just for Rebecca. Based on her letters, Rebecca wrote the song, "Wait for Me," encouraging young people to do the same. It has been a powerful—and welcomed—message.

Rebecca says that believing the Bible and trying to live for Jesus Christ in today's world isn't easy. Here's some advice that she's taken herself to remain sexually pure.

• Be careful about the people you get romantically involved with. Make sure that the person you are interested in has the same morals and convictions as you. Even then, be careful because it's so easy to slip into sin.
• If you are tempted to go too far sexually, or if you are alone in a situation where you feel vulnerable, get out of there and go to a public place.
• Be accountable to someone—a parent or a Christian friend who shares the same standards you do.
• Let love be nurtured in your own family. Be honest, vulnerable, and real with family members. Look to them for love and support.
• The mind is the devil's playground. Be discerning about the movies you see, the television programs you watch, and the music you listen to. Absorb things that affirm the way you want to live your life.

Last year in Holland, at a national youth festival attended by nearly 50,000 teenagers and broadcast on television, Rebecca's message of purity almost didn't get out.

"Unbeknownst to me, the leadership of the event asked someone on my team to tell me not to talk about purity, thinking it wouldn't go over well. That message never got to me. So I ended up talking about it," Rebecca said.

"I received a huge response. One guy e-mailed me that he had been addicted to sex for years. When he heard me talking about purity on the radio from that same event, he gave it up."

A Christian Reader original article.

Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian magazine (formerly Christian Reader).
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