My freshman year of college my best friend got me a coffee mug that said “World’s Youngest Looking Grandma”—and I LOVED it. I’m not saying I do or don’t resonate with those who enjoy bingo and being in bed by 8 o’clock (but I totally do). Regardless, that isn’t the point. The point is, before we begin, don’t automatically jump to the whole “this chick is just SUPER old fashioned and might actually be 80 years old” mindset and tune this out. Or, worse, don't automatically assume that I’m some square with the personality equivalent to a scrap of cardboard that reads “I’m judging you”. Hear me out, that isn’t me. Just be real with me for a minute.

If you watch any movie about college at all, or even has a college in it, there is typically at least one scene where someone is hooking up with a relatively random person from the night before. While I’m not saying that movies are always 100% accurate, although I WISH my life were like Elle Wood’s, I have to say that this particular portrayal of college life was realistic.

Hookups are freakin’ EVERYWHERE. They happen often and quickly, and sometimes even unknowingly (WHAT was in that Hunch Punch?!). And society promises that hookups are free and painless, just to scratch an itch, and are just about as unattached as Donald Trump’s toupee in a strong gust of wind. It's harmless, just a night of fun, and when it’s over you two can just part ways as unlikely friends, right? How wonderful.

But, NO. Actually, I’m calling bull.

I’m calling bull for every girl or guy who’s ever fallen into this mindset and woken up the next morning feeling a huge weight on their chest and a heavy heart, but telling themselves that they feel fine, even good, because HEY, they got laid, right?

I have a lot of friends who hook up. All are different with different stories and personalities, some relatively unemotional and others feeling every emotion to its deepest extent. I have NEVER ONCE talked to a friend who hasn’t told me some derivative of, “I felt bad the next morning” when talking about their hookups and I’m not talking from the hangover. I mean feeling genuinely, emotionally crappy.

WHY are we ignoring these feelings?

I honestly don’t know, but I do know this: we were made for more than meaningless sex.

I know that we feel crappy the next morning because our souls were crafted for only the deepest connection to drive us to be together in that way. We weren’t supposed to give ourselves away at the slightest demonstration of interest. We weren’t supposed to give ourselves away because we feel lonely or because we’re trying to cover up a hardship in life or because we’re trying to get over someone. We were made for more and we crave more, which is why our hearts will never be satisfied with a string of one night stands, regardless of how hard our brains try to trick them.

You’re worth more. You have meaning because God created you for a purpose - meticulously, spending time on every little detail. That isn’t nothing. In fact, it’s everything.

So no, maybe I don’t know what’s going on in your heart.

Maybe a heartbreak has left you empty and in search of warmth from wherever you can get it.

Maybe you’re so sick of waiting for the person you were created for, you ache all over from the loneliness.

Maybe you didn’t even know you were feeling bad.

But I do know that your story isn’t over. And you’re never too far gone.

Okay, I know it isn’t easy to consider change. It is super easy, however, to just take someone home for the night and pretend for a while that it’s what you want. But at the end of the day (or the next morning), you have to ask yourself if it’s worth it.

Each minute of meaningless pleasure costs a fraction of yourself. And, eventually, you’ll pay so much that you end up empty, wondering how it got this far—wondering where these pieces of you went and who exactly is carrying them around with them without even thinking about it.

All I’m saying is that you are better than easy. You are worth the fight, you are worth effort, and you are worth patience. Most of all though, you are worth LOVE. Not superficial, easy love. The deepest love that sees all the meticulous, Jesus-given details in you and cultivates them.

So, don’t settle. Don’t settle for scraps of attention based solely on what your face looks like or what you were wearing or simply because you were available.

Wait for it, demand it (kindly and with love of course), and when you forget what you are created for, surround yourself with reminders. You weren’t designed for easy, superficial things.

We are worth more, so let's start living like it.