In my shoes...

"In my shoes" is a weekly series that is updated every Thursday. I hope you enjoy the following post and that like me, you will learn more about a different walk of life, which will help you to love better! We love comments or likes and would love to have you follow this series with us. We have some amazing women and amazing topics to share. 


This post was written by an anonymous writer.

When I was 16, I had an irregular pap smear. I had HPV, a now very common, known STD that that is the leading cause for cervical cancer. It is estimated that 75% to 80% of all females and males in the United States will be infected by it in their lifetime. The symptoms vary from minor to deadly, (if it leads to cancer). At the time, I had never heard of it, and I was scared, but a simple procedure took care of it and I went about my life. Thankfully, my symptoms were minimal.

At the age of 18, I broke out with the herpes virus and experienced the worst pain that I ever had at that point in my life. It rocked my world. I remember going to the doctor to get a diagnosis, and remember feeling such an enormous sense of shame and embarrassment. I walked through a HEB that had a 24-hour pharmacy with my face towards the ground and tears streaming down my face. I couldn't look the pharmacist in the eyes as I handed over my script.

As a young adult, when I surrendered my life to the Lord, I realized that although ALL of our sins are washed away and we are clean before the Lord, the scars, consequences, and suffering from our sins do not always go away. Sin leaves it's ugly stain.

I remember telling my soon to be husband that I had two sexually transmitted diseases and wondering if we would still marry me.  It was one of the hardest things I ever had to confess. And because it doesn't go away, you are then forced to ask that person if they are willing to live with it as well. It is not a fun thing.

It still comes up and it will for the rest of my life. It rears it's head when I am sick and have a compromised immune system. It comes up when I have to fill out medical papers, when preparing for labor and delivery, when applying for life insurance, and sometimes when cuddling with my husband and a commercial for Valtrex comes on. It doesn't go away.

If I could stress ONE SINGLE THING to any unmarried person considering having sex or to a married person considering an affair, it would be this... Sexually transmitted disease are not respecters of people. They do not care if you are white, red, or green, if you are rich or poor, if you sleep with 5 people, 2 people, 1 person, or 20 people. They do not care if you are popular, pretty, or ugly. They can happen to you. You can pass them to your spouse or to your children and some of them never go away. It CAN happen to YOU, I promise it can.

And although, you can be forgiven, std's cannot be forgotten. Saving yourself for your spouse is truly the only way you can protect yourself from them. (And that's if your spouse saved him or herself as well.)

Don't do it. Abstinence truly is the only way to go. For many more reasons than one.

Another post submitted by an anonymous writer.

I am sad to say that my husband is not the only man I've been with intimately. For completely insecure and immature reasons, I found it necessary to have a "fling" with someone else before I could be comfortable with one person for the rest of my life (sounds like someone who's ready to get married, huh?).

Two years later, after having gotten married, I got pregnant with my first child.  The hormones of pregnancy triggered symptoms of an STD that I didn't know I had until that point...it was HPV.


My husband knew of my "fling" but it was something we agreed was better not to talk about.  HPV made the issue impossible to ignore and brought up feelings of guilt, shame, and unworthiness in me and feelings of anger, sadness, and doubt in my husband.  Luckily for me, the physical symptoms go away after giving birth, but that one decision reaped consequences that are able to diminish my pregnancy experiences, introduce unnecessary strife in my marriage, and cause a health concern that I'll have to monitor forever.

I know that I'm forgiven, and I believe that I can be healed, but I also feel that God has allowed me to experience this distress in order to share my story with others and help prevent this in them. So now it's time for me to get on my soap box...

It only takes ONE time! Don't trick yourself into making bad decisions by making excuses like ... "I'll use protection", "they haven't been with anyone else", "they said they're clean", "it only happened once", etc.  These statements are not of God and they won't protect you from the lifetime of shame that you may experience if you contract an STD.  Wait for your husband or wife and pray to the Lord that they wait for you too!