Every day we are bombarded on our televisions, by the entertainment industry, in the books and magazines on the market, and in our institutions of learning with sexual freedom.  It is accepted as normal.  We hear, “don’t suppress your desires;” “it’s normal to do it…even if you aren’t married;” “everyone else is doing it;” “it’s healthier to be unrestrained;” “why wait?”   There is no shame, no privacy, and nothing is sacred.  The advertising industry draws from the most intimate areas of our lives, short of pornography, and plasters it before our faces and that of our children.  It is no wonder that 750,000 teenage girls become pregnant every year in the United States, and 24% of the unmarried mothers in the United States are teenagers.  Nationally, 1.3 million children are born out-of-wedlock each year.
Today, in the wake of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies, many young women are considering secondary virginity.  Simply defined, “Second-generation virginity is a choice to abstain from sex again for a period of time.”   The encouraging news is that today young people, including some of these young people who have been sexually active in the past—both young women and young men—are taking a pledge to wait for marriage. They are signing the following pledge:
“Believing that true love waits, I make a commitment to God, myself, my family, those I date, and my future mate to be sexually pure until the day I enter marriage.” 

But in the year 1956 there seemed to be no need for these formal vows.  The sexual revolution was yet in the future; abortion was illegal; birth control pills would not be on the market for another four years.  The terms “Crisis Pregnancy Center” or “Abortion Clinic” were not in our vocabulary.
But a new day was dawning on the American scene: civil rights, women’s rights, broadening information with a shrinking world, and the explosion of scientific information. 
Margaret Sanger was saying:
“No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.”

But since the problem of unrestrained sexual intimacy, crisis pregnancy, and single motherhood did not begin with Margaret Sanger and the sexual revolution of the 60’s, the means to chastity and purity are as timeless as the problem.  
The following story depicts how two young women, from the previous story “All Things”, concerned with their past and their unwelcomed sexual encounters, sought ways to rise above the past and remain chaste and pure in the explosive caldron of the second half of the twentieth century…waiting until marriage. This story is not meant to fight the battle against wrongs that will never go away, but to suggest a way of life than can transcend the cry to capitulate.

“Soar Above the Yesterdays” is the continuing story of Susanna Elder, her twins, and her friends and family.  Whereas “All Things” is a story about the dilemma of unanticipated pregnancy, “Soar Above the Yesterdays” works through the problems following a young woman who has normal feelings, wants a normal life of romance, career, and hope for the future.  Although the concept of “secondary virginity” is the primary focus of the book, a bit of mystery combined with romance and career decisions carry the focus to its logical conclusion.

Many of the same characters carry Susanna’s story through 1956, both in Grassy Branch and Kenbridge.  Carly Rose, Duncan, Grandpa, Aunt Sarah, Jim Bob and many others play important roles in her life.  You will meet many new faces, as well.

I’m looking forward to sharing with you the conclusion to Susanna’s story.