Can I just throw a crazy idea out there? I was thinking about it last night. I don't think that waiting until marriage has to be a faith/God/religion-inspired thing. Let me explain. Now, of course, all of this is purely my understanding and opinion and all of that. So, with that disclaimer in place...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't sex one of the most intimate experiences in human terms? I mean, how much more vulnerable can one person ever be? There's a beautiful, passionate, and intense connection of man and woman. There's an exchange of self in every way. Taking God out of that equation, I still find myself asking why anyone would want to steal that experience from their future forever person. Sure, we are tempted because of that beauty and intensity, but the anticipation of that moment with just one person forever definitely motivates me. I recognize the awesomeness of that union, but I also want to wait on the right time, on that time when I say that I am all his and I can mean that in every way.
I guess my hypothesis falls short in that a number of people don't see sex as this gift of self. In fact, a good portion of our society thinks that such a view puts way too much importance on a simple human desire and experience. People rank sex as a necessity equivalent to eating and breathing. They go on to rate sex the way they rate restaurants or athletic events. I think that's what frustrates me and that's where I get hung up. How can this uniting moment, when it is participated in with love and commitment, be looked at in such a trivial way? It seems that those things actually can't go together.
Related to that, I don't want to have anything to compare! I want my husband to be the one and only. I want him to be the only man that I ever am so completely known by. I want only him to receive every aspect of me and only once we are wed.
Call me old fashioned, but I think we've lost a whole lot of meaning and depth when it comes to sex. On that principle, I have confidence in saying that waiting til marriage doesn't have to be a faith-based decision. If anyone recognizes the reality of that act and all that comes with it, then they would be inclined to look similarly at the situation. It is something worth waiting on. If only we could see that.