Annually, December 1 is commemorated as World AIDS Day - when most countries in the world take time out to remind their citizens about safe sexual practices and to get tested for HIV AIDS.
[According to About.com article, "What is HIV and How Does it Relate to AIDS?", HIV is a virus that is transmitted from person to person through the exchange of body fluids such as blood, semen, breast milk and vaginal secretions.
Sexual contact is the most common way to spread HIV AIDS, but it can also be transmitted by sharing needles when injecting drugs, or during childbirth and breastfeeding.
As HIV AIDS reproduces, it damages the body's immune system and the body becomes susceptible to illness and infection. There is no known cure for HIV infection
The same About.com article describes AIDS - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome as "a condition that describes an advanced state of HIV infection.
With AIDS, the virus has progressed, causing significant loss of white blood cells (CD4 cells) or any of the cancers or infections that result from immune system damage.
Those illnesses and infections are said to be "AIDS-defining" because they mark the onset of AIDS. Like HIV, there is no known cure for AIDS"].
In Jamaica 32,000 people have AIDS but over half of these people don't know it. That's one in every 9 people. (Jamaica has a population of over 2.7 million people).
Although advancement in technology allows those persons living with HIV and full-blown AIDs to live longer, there is still stigma attached to having the virus.
I am appealing to our youth:
Your well-being is important to God.
He knows that sex outside of marriage destroys the human spirit.
For God created sex for one place only - marriage...
...Marriage between two people who love each other enough to weather the good and bad times together, remain faithful to each other to grow in love for years until one of them dies or until Christ returns, whichever is sooner.
Being naive about sex and safe sexual practices could kill you.
Sex isn't running away...
It will be there when you are ready to marry.
Concentrate on developing the total you: your spirit, your mind, your well-being and your body.
Abstain from sex until you find the person you can give yourself to, for life.
When you've found that person and when the time is right, marry that person - then have sex.
You have to answer to God for what you do with your body.
Don't ever let people use up, use up your body, then throw you away.
Most adults will tell you sex isn't anything.
Well, most adults regret their first sexual experiences, for they were totally unprepared.
Take the time to educate yourself about how the human reproductive system works.
Take the time to read the Bible - God's word, re what He says about marriage and sex.
The more you know, is the more you'll understand that you were fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13-14).
Your body is on loan to you from God.
Remember you have to answer to Him re what you have done to and with it.
I leave you with 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 from God's word - the Bible:
"18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies".
Gillian
Sources Include
1) CVM News, December 1,2011
2) Article, "What is HIV and How Does it Relate to AIDS?", About.com, accessed December 1,2011
3) Psalm 139:13-14 , 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 from the Bible, made electronic via BibleGateway.com, accessed December 1,2011
