The Gift - 4

One by one Daughter's (start at beginning) friends were drawn to give away their gifts from God. After being hurt by the lost friendship with Harlot and Abandoned, Daughter watched her two other long time friends become distant with their choices, as well.

One friend, Careless, had been in the same church forever with Daughter. Although she had originally expressed the desire to keep her gift pure when they had been younger, when she reached the later teen years she told Daughter she didn't see much point in it, "How am I ever going to get married if refuse to share at least some of my gift?"


A new young man, Sly, had been coming to some church services and had been keeping the attention of Careless on those occasions. He was handsome and athletic and an easy talker. He talked about how he believed Christian singles needed to be wise about who they spent their time with, but dating other Christians was a safe way to keep God's gift fairly well intact. Careless had started to agree with Sly's thinking, after all he was a Christian, too (2 Timothy 3:5-7).

Careless described these conversations with Daughter, "Sly is sooo romantic when we are out. He holds my hand and tells me I'm beautiful. And he is honest about how he has already given a few pieces of his gift away, like his first kiss is gone and there are some bumps and bruises to his gift because of other relationships he has had. But, really Daughter, by the time girls and guys reach our age, how many are going to have their gifts completely intact?"

Daughter just smiled politely as she listened. She had come to realize that her friends did not want to be reminded of previous conversations about purity. She had come to recognize that there had been no conviction to stay pure, just an opinion that changed as easily as the wind (Ephesians 4:14). It was not difficult for Daughter to look at these young men her friends were walking away with and see that none of them had a strong interest in planning marriage God's way; they showed very little interest to be men of God at all. Their interests were in taking pieces of gifts from different girls for entertainment and self-fulfilling pleasure more than anything.

Then again, her friends seemed to be more interested in self-fulfilling pleasures, too. Careless and her new beau, Sly, quickly became a regular couple at all social events. Daughter did hope that, for sake of Careless, this relationship would lead to marriage. However, she had still given away alot of her gift without the promise of a future.

Her last friend, Naive, had a loose grip on the need for purity. She and Daughter had become even closer as the other friends wandered off into relationships. However, Naive soon showed her unwillingness to wait for a young man that could match his pure gift with hers. Naive started talking to Daughter about how she could effect others by joining the dating crowd - how she could be a 'light' for God to those that she dated. She told Daughter that her heart was telling her this was a good direction to take (Jeremiah 17:9&10).

It wasn't long before a young man came into Naive's life. They had met at a family wedding and Naive told Daughter that he had showed such a great interest in Christianity. His name was Opulence, and he had showered her in expensive purchases and taken her on a whirlwind romantic weekend. Anything Naive had wanted, he had purchased for her. In exchange, Naive had given him her gift.

It was an exciting time for Naive, but once the weekend was over, she met some other girls whom Opulence had romanced before in order to receive their gifts. She cried on Daughter's shoulder for hours when she had seen Opulence out with another girl only days after she had given him her gift. Not only was her gift gone, the 'light' she wanted to be to others had dimmed (Proverbs 23:3-8).

Now, after so many years, Daughter stood alone in her conviction to keep her gift intact and pure. She prayed daily that God would continue to protect her heart from the temptations that had taken her friends. Her parents consoled her when her friends were lost or estranged because of walking different paths. She was now 19 years old and lamented the fact that no young man was to be found with a gift that matched hers.

She took solace in her parents' support, but her confidence came from the promises of her Father in heaven (Psalm 62: 5-8).

Now faith is the substance of things hope for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1

to be continued...