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Virtues Laying out Boundaries

What are Virtues?

Harper's Bible dictionary Def: Virtues are morally good habits of action which reside in the soul.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bearing with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love,which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

Virtues help us live from the inside out, instead of from the outside in. I’m not living my life because of what my friends say or my teachers tell me, I am living by my values that I want to live by. Virtues are so important they dictate the outcome of our life.

Virtues

Ben Franklin decided who he wanted to be at a early age in his life, he wrote 13 virtues to guide all of his decisions so that he would become that person. He didn't want his emotions, his circumstances or the pressure of pleasing others to determine his destiny. So be thinking of the virtues you would want to write.

*Idea have a white board and have students tell you some ideas, write on board for them to get ideas.

A ancient Hebrew proverb says, “where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained(or perish)but happy is he who keeps the law” You might ask what does that have to do with purity? Great Question. When the bible is talking about the law here , its talking about the law of restraint. In other words, when we have a vision for our lives, we restrain our options to capture the vision. But if we have no vision, we perish, or stumble because we end up spending all of our energy either trying to find pleasure or working to stay out of pain.

Example, let say trying to loose weight, decide to go to gym, work out hard, next day very sore, I wake up feeling very bad, like hit by mag truck, there is only one thing that's going to get me to the gym, its vision.

Vision gives Pain a Purpose!

One of the greatest decisions we have to make concerning vision is how we envision ourselves! Who do you think you are?Our behavior flows from the vision that we have for ourselves. Once we decide who we are, then we will work out our actions, attitudes and behaviors to manifest our person. If we don’t do this 2 things happen,

1. We begin to look to other people to tell us who we are. This give the other person all the power, and we find ourselves in a dangerous position, we then try and gain strength and self-esteem from them , this begins the very unhealthy habit of people pleasing. instead of living out the virtues that are rooted in our personal vision.

2. The second thing that happens is we start living our life without restraint. Our behavior is sold into slavery to our emotions, and emotions become taskmaster, telling us how we will behave. You start to live by how you feel, not what is right, we rarely consider how today’s behavior is affecting tomorrow destiny.

The second thing that happens is we start living our life without restraint. Our behavior is sold into slavery to our emotions, and emotions become taskmaster, telling us how we will behave. You start to live by how you feel, not what is right, we rarely consider how today’s behavior is affecting tomorrow destiny.

There is no middle ground in this issue of identity. Either we take responsibility to know ourselves, and make choices that have integrity with who we are, or we surrender that responsibility to other people. The fact of the matter is that the war over your virginity is so strong that you are going to have to have a vision for your purity to win. You must decide that you want to be a virgin before you start searching for the man of you dreams. You just can’t wait until window of the car are steamed up to decide who you are going to be!

Setting Boundaries

Once you have decided who you are going to be, life is much simpler. All you have to do is live like you believe. Key: You will know when you really believe in your own destiny when you start treating yourself as you have envisioned yourself. Boundaries are so important not just for ourselves but for other people we let in our life as well. Boundaries are like stakes in the ground, lines drawn in the sand . How these stakes are communicated-

words we speak or listen too.

by the way we behave and by the way we allow others to behave in our presence.

3. by the people with whom we choose to spend time and allow to influence us.

Who do you want to Attract?

Good Question, whats your standards?

Where you fish for romance and the bait you use to catch a mate says a lot about the virtues you live by. If you are fishing the shark-infested waters of parties and hang outs, please don’t be shocked when you catch a hammerhead. The way you dress is very important , its conveying what your virtues are like. If you want to be admired and respected for who you are as a person, then you need to present your physical body in way that sends that message.

If its not for sale don’t advertise it!

There is a Hugh difference between looking pretty and looking sexy. Be conscientious about how you are presenting your body to people .

Lets talk about a Purity plan. Someone once said, “The problem with life is that it is so daily.” I Agree! Many of us have great ideas about life, about what it should be like and how we can become successful at it. But for most of us, the struggle lie in daily walking out our convictions-especially when it comes to thinking in such a way that our Minds don’t violate our hearts.Its really is impossible to control your behavior long term unless you master your thoughts and subject them to virtues that you have chosen to live by. Your virtues have to take Authority over your thoughts. Every action one takes is first started with a thought, its starts with the imagination. And no one has ever had sex with someone without first imagining it in the private room of his or her mind. This principle is so powerful that Jesus said that lusting after someone in your heart is the same thing as committing adultery with that person (see . Your mind is the battlefield of your life. It is here that the war for your destiny is fought. Your thoughts are the weapons of warfare.

Ladie, real men are arrtracted to woen who take a honest interest in them a

What situations, people and personal desires temp you to compromise your resolve to be sexually pure? Which ones are the hardest to resist?

How does the war for your purity distort how you ee yourself? How does it mess with your convictions.?

Watch how the young men you date treat there mothers, because when the honey moon is over they will care for you just like they cared for there mother. Of course there is exceptions but by and large we learn to relate to the opposite sex through our parents.

Another Tip, look for a partner who

How does having a clear vision of who you are help you resist the temptation to compromise? How does it give you purpose as you fight for your purity?

Look closely at yourself. What about you best defines who you are? What motivates your attitudes and behavior? what can you do to strengthen Gods’s place in you life?