Celebrate Purity is a symposium that culminates in a purity ball for homeschoolers. It is organized for kids ages 10 and older and intended to bring them to a point of commitment to purity. Initiated by TMA homeschool back in 2009, it caught the interest of families in Cebu. Who has a ball for purity anyway?! Only homeschoolers! The symposium is usually attended by parents and their kids and by the end of the entire series, there is an evening dinner.
Edric and I flew to Cebu Saturday and gave a short talk for the ball, which was the culminating event of their purity symposium. The Cebu families went all out! Harold Hotel was beautifully decorated, professional entertainers were hired (they were incredible, by the way), a photographer took family portraits, the food was delicious, and the fathers danced with their daughters and the moms with their sons.
I liked the special charge that Edric to the fathers. He told them, “The buck stops with us. We are accountable for teaching our children to pursue purity and doing our best to safeguard them. Purity must begin with us.” My part of the talk was about guarding your heart. But the most meaningful part of the event was the ceremony. Families huddled over a covenant form, parents put purity rings on their kids, and the families walked up to a cross to put their roses on it as a sign of their commitment of purity to Jesus.
