That night Denise and her husband, Jack, had the first of many long conversations with Nicole. A few weeks later Nicole told Denise about a suspicious sore she had developed, and a visit to the doctor confirmed that she had a sexually transmitted disease.

In the car on the way home, Nicole whispered quietly as tears slid down her cheeks, “I thought Alex loved me. He told me that I was the only one. He hasn’t even called me in two weeks, and he’s been avoiding me at school.” Turning to her mom, she asked, “Do you think God hates me now?”

“Honey, God doesn’t hate you—He loves you, and He didn’t want this to happen. But all of our actions have consequences. We don’t always see them ahead of time. That’s why He tells us not to do some things. He wants to spare us from the pain that will come when we disobey Him.”

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that approximately nineteen million new infections of various sexually transmitted diseases occur each year in the United States, almost half of them among young people ages fifteen to twenty-four. Just as the laws in our communities are designed for our protection, God’s law is there to protect us. He is a loving Father who gives us the guidelines for living an abundant and satisfying life.