Fidelity in Marriage

The Family a proclamation to the world states, "Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony and to be reared by a mother and father who honor marital vows with complete fidelity."  While the topic of conversation this week is about sexual fidelity in marriage, there is so much to this.  The definitions of fidelity are instructive to this topic.  

1.  faithfulness to a person, cause, or belief, demonstrated by continuing loyalty and support.

2.  sexual faithfulness to a spouse or partner.

3.  the degree of exactness with which something is copied or reproduced.

In a marriage, people vow to place their spouse first in their life through richer or poorer, sickness and health etc.  The first definition covers most of these.  The second definition coupled with the first definition doesn't really allow much room for anyone else to come between the partners and the third definition I thought was really interesting.  As our children grow up in a healthy, environment where parents are living with complete fidelity, they will then have a better chance of reproducing or copying that which they already know from the examples of their parents.  

My younger sister was asked by an acquaintance about a sexual behavior her new husband was wanting her to do.  It was obviously uncomfortable for her friend.  My sister's answer perfectly sums up how a sexual relationship should be.  She said "My husband protects my virtue.  That is so important to him that he wouldn't ask me to do something that would be uncomfortable for me."    Sister Dalton, the former general Young Women's President in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints said, " “When we understand our divine identity, it will define all of our relationships with each other.”  No where is this more obvious than in the sexual relationship between a married couple."  Does that mean that we don't explore things sexually together, no!  but it does mean that we communicate about the things we like and don't like always with the other partner's feelings in mind and the loving bond we share.  It isn't always easy to communicate about a lot of difficult topics in a marriage but, it becomes much easier when bonds of trust and love are the rule of our marriages and not the exception.

In the for strength of Youth pamphlet published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in the section on dating it says, "Remember that a young man and a young woman on a date are responsible to protect each other’s honor and virtue."  If we teach our children the worth of souls, theirs as well as others, and they see that example in our homes between husbands and wives, this will be a natural outgrowth to that responsibility and fidelity with all of its definitions will become more natural to them.