Diarrhea is Taking the Lives of 4,500 Children Everyday

Globally, more than 10 million children under the age of five die every
year, with the majority of deaths occurring in developing countries.
Nearly 20 percent of these deaths — 2.2 million — are due to mostly
preventable diarrheal disease from unsafe water and lack of basic
sanitation and hygiene. This represents about 4,500 children dying
every day — more than the number of children who die from malaria,
AIDS, and TB combined.

Children in developing countries suffer from an average of three
episodes of diarrhea every year, and nearly 20 out of every 1,000 die of
diarrhea-related dehydration before they reach their second birthday.3
Diarrhea results in 1 billion episodes of illness every year, and in some
regions, it accounts for more than 30 percent of all hospital admissions
of children.4 Ongoing bouts with diarrhea can also result in diminished
productivity and missed opportunities for education.

Virtually all child deaths associated with diarrhea from dehydration can
be avoided through proven and effective solutions, such as the improved
availability and use of oral rehydration therapy (ORT). ORT can
prevent about 90 percent of child deaths from dehydration. This simple,
costeffective treatment can be given at home using either packets of
oral rehydration salts (ORS), which cost about 10 cents each; or a home
solution of sugar, salt, and water.5

Diarrhea can also be prevented through exclusive breastfeeding,
improved weaning practices, measles immunization, increasing the
availability of clean water, and improving sanitation and hygiene.6 Lowcost,
simple, and straightforward approaches such as these, along with
access to good primary health care for mother and newborn, could save
millions of lives each year.

For more information, visit us at www.child-survival.org.

Man cannot live without love.

Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it.

-John Paul II

Q. Should I move in with my boyfriend before we get married? It seems like a smart move, because you want to really know a person before you commit to life together.

A. Most cohabiting couples who hope to marry see their arrangement as a good test run, a way to make sure that they are compatible before tying the knot. After all, who wants to go through a divorce?

Aside from all the spiritual factors regarding premarital sex, we should take a look at what researchers have found about living together before marriage. Two researchers summarized the findings of numerous studies by stating that "expectation of a positive relationship between cohabitation and marital stability . . . has been shattered in recent years by studies conducted in several Western countries."(1)

What the studies discovered is this: if you do not want to get divorced, do not move in until after the wedding. Why is that? Consider the following facts about cohabitation: Most couples who live together never end up getting married, but those who do tie the knot are almost twice as likely to divorce as couples who do not live together before marriage.(2) Overall, couples who cohabit before marriage have a divorce rate of about eighty percent,(3) and non-virgin brides are sixty percent more likely to end up divorced than women who enter marriage as virgins.(4) Couples who cohabited prior to marriage have greater marital conflict and poorer communication, and they made more frequent visits to marriage counselors.(5) Women who cohabited before marriage are more than three times as likely to cheat on their husbands within marriage.(6) The U.S. Justice Department found that women who cohabit are sixty-two times more likely to be assaulted by a live-in boyfriend than by a husband.(7) They were also more than three times as likely to be depressed as married women,(8) and the couples were less sexually satisfied than those who waited for marriage.(9)

From a standpoint of marital duration, marital peace, marital fidelity, physical safety, emotional well-being, and sexual satisfaction, cohabitation is not exactly a recipe for happiness. Even USA Today reported, "Could this be true love? Test it with courtship, not cohabitation."(10) You may assume that if the couple had lived together a bit longer, they would have ironed out the difficulties and not had these problems in marriage. The studies show the opposite: longer cohabitations are associated with a higher likelihood of divorce.(11) Even if you don't think that your boyfriend would be abusive or that you would get depressed, the divorce rate speaks for itself.

Like all of us, you dream of a lasting love. If you are serious about making this relationship work, save your marriage before it starts and don't move in until after the wedding.
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1. William G. Axinn and Arland Thornton, "The Relation Between Cohabitation and Divorce: Selectivity or Casual Influence?" Demography 29 (1992): 357–374. As quoted by Stanton, Why Marriage Matters, 57.
2.Larry L. Bumpass and James A. Sweet, "Cohabitation, Marriage, and Union Stability: Preliminary Findings from NSFH2 [National Survey of Families and Households]" (NSFH Working Paper No. 65, Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1995).
3.Kim Camplisson, "Celebrating Christian Marriage," The Southern Cross (newspaper of the Diocese of San Diego), 26 April 2001, 8.
4.Katherine A. London and Joan R. Kahn, "Premarital Sex and the Risk of Divorce," Journal of Marriage and Family 53 (1991): 845–855.
5.Elizabeth Thompson and Ugo Colella, "Cohabitation and Marital Stability: Quality or Commitment?" Journal of Marriage and the Family 54 (1992): 263. As quoted by Stanton, Why Marriage Matters, 57; John D. Cunningham and John K. Antill, "Cohabitation and Marriage: Retrospective and Predictive Consequences," Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 11 (1994): 90. As quoted by Stanton, Why Marriage Matters, 58.
6. Koray Tanfer and Renata Forste, "Sexual Exclusivity Among Dating, Cohabiting, and Married Women," Journal of Marriage and Family (February 1996): 33–47.
7. Chuck Colson, "Trial Marriages on Trial: Why They Don't Work," Breakpoint, 20 March 1995.
8. Lee Robins and Darrell Regier, Psychiatric Disorders in America: The Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study (New York: Free Press, 1991), 64. As quoted by Stanton, Why Marriage Matters, 66–67.
9. Marianne K. Hering, "Believe Well, Live Well," Focus on the Family, September 1994, 4.
10. William Mattox Jr., "Could This be True Love? Test It with Courtship, Not Cohabitation," USA Today, 10 February 2000, 15A (www.usatoday.com).
11. Thompson and Colella, "Cohabitation and Marital Stability," 266. As quoted by Stanton, Why Marriage Matters, 57.

Q&A came from pureloveclub.com

Am I not here, who is your Mother?

Every time I feel kinda nutty and crazy, I go to the big picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe in our church. Below it is written her message to Juan Diego. Reading it really consoles me, knowing that I have a mother in heaven who take care of me.


Most Holy Virgin answered: “Hear me and understand well, my son the least, that nothing should frighten or grieve you. Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything.

Are You the Source of Your Own Misery?

Have you met the unholy trinity?

Sure you have!

They are always with you 24/7. The unholy trinity is Me, Myself and I.

Have you noticed that people love to talk about themselves? The conversation mostly revolves on what they have, what they want and what they don’t have. Talking to these people is like entering another world, the “Me, Myself and I” world. To tell you frankly, it’s a very boring world.

There is one word that best describe these people, selfish!

One thing I have observed about selfish people, no matter what they have achieved in life, they still feel deprived of something. They still have lots of things to complain about. They are upset most of the time because things do not go as they want. Seldom have you heard them get upset because people are dying of hunger in Africa or children are being abused and abandoned. It is like that they are the only one who has problems in this world.

There is certain irony in selfishness. The more one selfishly acquire the things of the world like money, fame or power, the more their world shrinks. They have reduced life to only money, only fame or only power. These things that don’t necessarily make you a better person, or have a full life. They believe their selfishness will bring them joy, but in reality the root of their misery is their own selfishness. Observe those people who are truly joyful, you will see that they are unselfish persons.

Life like water, the more you grab it the more it slips away.

God created us in His image and likeness. And God is Love. The love I am talking about is agape or self-donating love. It is the love which Jesus showed us when He was crucified. His love was empty of self.

Now look into your heart. Ask yourself, "Is the cause of my misery is my own selfishness?"

Q. I've decided to save sex for marriage, but I'm unsure about being completely chaste with my boyfriend. Any advice?

A. I'm glad you recognize that chastity is more than abstinence from intercourse, but there is a lot of wisdom in saving sexual arousal for marriage as well. The reason you hesitate to take this next step is that the connection between chastity and true love may still be hazy for you. Let's take a look at the link between the two.

We all desire love, but in the words of Pope John Paul II, "Only the chaste man and the chaste woman are capable of true love."(1) He also said that purity is a requirement of love.(2) So, why is this? How does chastity safeguard authentic love?

I think we can agree that it is easy to mistake physical intimacy for love. This is understandable since physical intimacy has such a unifying power, which is an attribute of love. The problem is that lust also has a tendency to draw two people together. It is a counterfeit oneness that may be hard to distinguish from the real thing, especially if we've never known healthy intimacy before. The physical closeness seems to meet deep needs that aren't filled elsewhere.

We all have a need to be loved, but some people stay in unhealthy relationships because it seems to bury their hurt and loneliness. This is where chastity comes in because it alone has the power to differentiate between love and lust. For those who seek love, chastity is the answer.

Have you ever had a crush on someone and formed an idealized image of him, only to see a different person emerge when your emotions faded and reality set in? Was it the other person who changed or was it you? He probably didn't change at all. You just opened your eyes. Just as having a crush on a person clouds our objectivity, physical intimacy does the same. Personally, the more physical my relationships have been, the more difficult it was to judge their worth while I was in them. After a relationship ended, it was easier to evaluate how healthy the relationship was. But while I was in it--and to the extent that we were physically involved--the tougher it was to recognize that it was not worth keeping. Frequently, we don't want to look at a relationship objectively because we don't want to admit that it isn't love. We don't want to lose the other person.

Whenever love is present, there's a desire to please the other. This is especially common in young women who want to please guys in order to win their affection. However, love sometimes demands that we refuse to please the other, because what the other finds to be pleasing is not what is best for him. You would agree that when you refuse to have sex with a guy, it does not mean that you do not love him. It just means that you love him more than he may be able to understand. If we act out of a desire to please, then we're not really being loving to the other person because we're not doing what is best for him.

Sometimes, people who are intimate in ways short of sex stay together for a time. Usually, however, this becomes old and the couple pushes back the boundaries trying to find new levels of excitement and closeness. Before long, all that is left is sexual intercourse. The couple depends on physical pleasure to feel close to one another since they do not know how to express love in other ways. In the long run, the couple's impatience for sexual oneness tends to end up causing their separation. They have deprived themselves of the opportunity to grow in love, and thus to experience true joy.

Don't feel you will miss out if you live chastity to the fullest. Sure, you will experience an initial loss of the physical union that you desire, but you move beyond this when you see the value of the other person and the benefits of a chaste lifestyle. In the end, the only thing you miss out on is the regret. While chastity is not the easiest choice, it is the best one.

To see how this works on a practical level, consider your options. A guy who doesn't intend to save sexual arousal for marriage will often approach a date as a formality to get through--before the real "fun" can start. When a couple is striving for purity, then the dates can actually be enjoyed as time spent getting to know each other. You're free to fall in love for all the right reasons. If you don't embrace chastity but still wish to remain a virgin, where does this leave you? You'll become all revved up, only to repeatedly slam on the brakes. Not only is this unloving because it arouses desires that you can not satisfy morally, it also leads to sexual frustration.

Often, a couple will share the gift of sexual arousal to feel closer, but they end up feeling alienated from each other and regretful. They would be much closer if they entrusted the relationship to God, and made sacrifices together to glorify him. Love always involves struggle, so if they are both willing to be generous with God, this will create a union between their hearts that no illicit pleasure can match. Purity will become their superglue.

One man told me that the power of temptation rests on the deceptive promise that sin will bring more satisfaction than living for God. It is only God's way that can satisfy us. In the words of Psalm 16:11, "Thou dost show me the path of life; in thy presence there is fullness of joy, in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore." We all desire happiness, but sin and happiness cannot live together. Sin is a counterfeit of happiness that brings with it the ugly companions of shame and regret. Sacrificial love brings true joy, and a life of virtue brings happiness. Try it and see. Where there is no chastity, there is selfishness. Where there is selfishness, there is no love. Where there is no love, there is no joy or peace. No wonder Pope John Paul II said, "Chastity is the sure way to happiness."(3)
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1.Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), Love and Responsibility, 171.
2.Pope John Paul II, general audience, 3 December 1980. As quoted by Theology of the Body (Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 1997), 177.
3.Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), Love and Responsibility, 172.

Q&A came from pureloveclub.com

When I try to slow things down with my boyfriend, he makes me feel guilty. How do I get him to respect me?

Q. I've been dating this guy and I've know for a long time that we've been too physical. I try to slow things down, and I end up feeling really guilty, because he'll bring up my past and the stuff I've done with other guys before. Or, he'll make me feel like I don't like him anymore if I don't do the stuff. I'm not a virgin, but I don't know what I need to do to make him respect me.

A. I met a few 7th grade girls a week ago in DC after one of my talks, and they explained to me that they didn't know hot to say no to a boyfriend. They would do stuff they didn't feel comfortable with to their boyfriends, and even if a dork or a jerk asked them out, they would say “yes.” Then, when they were without a boy, they said they would “be sad and cry and eat ice cream and get overweight.” They asked me what they should do since they were now sad because they weren't dating anyone. In a loving tone, I said, "Get over it. The last thing this world needs is a couple of women who can't stand on their own two feet because they need to cling to a boy to be secure and happy. Don't be pathetic. Cheer up. I mean, do you really want to marry any of these seventh grade guys?” Their response?” “Ewww! Gross!” “Alright” I said, “See, you’ll be okay.” They quickly smiled and ran off without a concern. Now, it's not always that easy, but I think sometimes we need a kick in the butt more than a hug. As for you, I think you could use both.

You deserve so much better than this guy. And you will find someone so much better than this IF, and I repeat IF, you make the wise decision that you are capable of making. You're not his doormat. Sure, you feel close to this guy because of how intimate you've become with him. But it's done. He’ll use you as long as you're available, but you are not his toy. What if you leave him, and then he calls back in a week and says he's had a change of heart, and things will be different? Will you fall for the bait and jump back in? If you want love, you must reject its counterfeits.

You've got to realize that you're trying to save this relationship because you don't want to face the hurt if it fails. It failed when it began, and all that has happened since then is that you're trying to distract yourself from that fact. Accept that you made a big mistake that won't happen again. You're not going to get this guy to love you by being more physical with him.

Be strong. I promise you will not regret it. Will it be tough? Yes. But look at the lives of young women who refuse to be strong. Now is the time to learn the single most important word for finding love . . . NO.

I’d also encourage you to go to confession. You need grace for what you are up against. Ask the Lord to give you a contrite heart. Knowledge of our sins is a gift from the Holy Spirit that we often don't want to receive. Have the courage to ask for it with a Rosary. God has something so much better for you, if you would only let go. (Jeremiah 29:11-14 - read it).

I once read that in order to catch monkeys in Africa, they hollow out a big hard vegetable, and put tinfoil in it through a small hole. The monkey sees the shiny tinfoil, and reaches in to grab it. When he clenches his fist, it is too big to fit out of the hole. He'll pull and pull until he starves to death, or until hunters come and kill him. If he would only let go, he'd be free. But he wants that tinfoil so much that it costs him his life. You get the idea. Let it go, and be assured of my prayers as you do so. I believe in you.

Q&A came from pureloveclub.com