Picture a rose. This rose is a beautiful, delicate white rose. It has no thorns and is unblemished. This precious gift is your most prized possession. Many may try to take a petal or two so that they can experience the beauty of it, but you guard it carefully. Then one day, you meet someone who, yet again, wants to have a petal from your rose. You think about it, then you let them. Your first petal is gone.

Over the years, a few more petals are given away and the rose becomes smaller and begins to brown at the edges. You still hold the flower dear, but it is no longer your most important possession. Then, you meet one more person. This is the person that you feel you are supposed to give your whole rose too. You’re excited for him to see the beauty of it, but when you look down, there are only a few petals left. They are no longer the brilliant white that they used to be, nor are they full. You feel sad, knowing that he still loves the rose, but that you cannot give him the full gift he deserves.

The rose in this analogy represents a kiss. While this may be a cheesy way of explaining it, it gets my point across. Now, before I go on, let me clarify that I see nothing wrong with kissing, but for me, my first kiss is dear to my heart. I not only want to be able to give my future husband my heart, but myself as a whole. I want him to be able to have my first and last kiss.

Whenever I tell people that I’m saving my first kiss for my wedding day, their first response is usually, “Are you crazy?” I want to assure you, that I am not crazy, no matter how much it may seem that I am. Let me explain why I want to save my first kiss. When I was younger, my parents gave me a book called "The Princess and the Kiss." As most young girls do, I had always wanted to be a princess, so the title intrigued me. The story was about a young princess that was given the gift of a kiss that was to be saved for the man that she would one day marry.

As my mom started reading, I looked at the pictures. The first illustration that stood out to me was when the princess was shown her kiss. The kiss was shown as a ball of light contained in a glass case much like the one that Beast’s rose was kept in during "Beauty and the Beast." It was beautiful. Throughout the book, many suitors came wanting the princess’s hand in marriage. One by one, she turned them down. Soon she began to grow weary of saving her kiss, but her mother encouraged her that the man God intended for her was out there waiting, just as she was.

Finally, a poor farmer who had nothing to give, but one thing, came to ask for the princess’s hand in marriage. He had no riches, no estate, nothing of importance, but he did have a kiss. He had also saved his first kiss for his future wife that he had prayed for every day. The princess then realized that this was the man that God had intended for her to marry. He had prayed and waited for her, just as she had done for him. The story ended with their marriage and first kiss, a beautiful sight to behold, as their two balls of light combined. The final picture of the book was of the prince and princess giving their newborn daughter her first kiss, so that she could save it for her future husband.

Ever since I read that book so many years ago, I have prayed for my future husband. I wait for him, I write him letters, and I know that one day I will meet the man God has intended for me. I vowed to save my first kiss for that man. There have been times where I could have given that gift away, and there have been young men who have wanted to “take a petal from my rose," so to speak. However, I still hold this gift dear to my heart. I know that I want to be able to give my future husband everything that I have. I want to be able to say that I saved my precious gift for him, and only him. I pray that I will find a man that will do the same for me. Until that day, I will continue to pray and wait on the Lord for His timing. Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” I will do this as long as I need. In the meantime, while I wait, I will look forward to the words, “You may now kiss the bride.”