This really spoke to me yesterday...

"...one can learn much about a prospective mate by observation alone. There is no better place than a college campus to observe what a man or woman is made of. From a respectful distance, with no knowledge on his part, I had the opprotunity to observe the character of Jim Elliot... When we began to get better acquainted through conversation, I found my hunches verified. Long before I had any reason to think he might be interested in me, I had put him down as the sort of man I hoped to marry. Kissing and holding hands would have added nothing to this conviction (anybody can kiss and hold hands). On the contrary, in fact, it would have subtracted something very important. I wanted to marry a man prepared to swim against the tide.

"I took it for granted that there must be a few men left in the world who had that kind of strength. I assumed that those men would also be looking for women of principle. I did not want to be among the marked-down goods on the bargain table, cheap because they'd been pawned over. Crowds collect there. It is only the few who will pay full price. 'You get what you pay for.' 

"It is a powerful lie that, because sexual desire is natural, healthy. and God-given, anything I do because of that desire is natural, healthy, and God-given... Christians who are buying such rubbish today are without honor. They have lost the notions of fidelity, renunciation, and sacrifice, because nothing seems worth all that...

"If your goal is purity of heart, be prepared to be thought very odd."  

Written by Elisabeth Elliot