Proverbs 2 says sexual immorality is something that is damaging to people – something that need to be saved from. For many enlightened people, this is an outdated viewpoint. More and more Americans believe that they can discard this thinking as easily as they would yesterday’s newspaper. American young people are becoming increasingly wary of commitment. According to a new study done by the University of Missouri, the creative solution to handling the stress of commitment is something called stay-overs. An article entitled Living together – too much commitment for today’s couples, in USA Today about this study explains:
“Instead of following a clear path from courtship to marriage, individuals are choosing to engage in romantic ties on their own terms without the guidance of social norms,” study author Tyler Jamison, a doctoral candidate in the human development and family studies department at the University of Missouri, said in a university news release.
There is a gap between the teen years and adulthood during which we don’t know much about the dating behaviors of young adults. Stayovers are the unique answer to what emerging adults are doing in their relationships,” she added. There are a number of reasons for this growing trend in stayover relationships, said Jamison, who interviewed college-aged adults in committed, exclusive relationships.” As soon as couples live together, it becomes more difficult to break up,” she explained. “At that point, they have probably signed a lease, bought a couch and acquired a dog, making it harder to disentangle their lives should they break up. Staying over doesn’t present those entanglements.”
So, signing a lease, buying a couch or a dog is an entanglement, but having sex is not?!?
I will copy the link to this article below. I wanted you to see it to give some modern context to understand the relevancy of biblical wisdom. The 3,000 year old warnings from the Proverbs are still relevant for today. It is just as important to heed them now as it was for the people of Israel, thousands of years ago. Are you providing your children with the love for God’s wisdom that they need to see the danger of “staying over”?
More in the next post.
2 thoughts on “Staying Over – Sex with Less Commitment”
Used and credited your previous posts in this series with discussing your book, EVERYDAY TALK, in a counseling course Sunday afternoon. Good stuff. Also like very much GET WISDOM with the suggestions for discussion and shepherding a child’s heart. Thanks to you and Ruth!
This post was very helpful in our family study on dating and purity. Thanks for being bold enough to talk about difficult subjects.