Elder Jeffrey R. Holland spoke of the devastating impact of sexual sin and the importance of preserving your virtue until you are married: “In matters of human intimacy, you must wait! You must wait until you can give everything, and you cannot give everything until you are legally and lawfully married. To give illicitly that which is not yours to give (remember, ‘you are not your own’ [1 Corinthians 6:19]) and to give only part of that which cannot be followed with the gift of your whole self is emotional Russian roulette. If you persist in pursuing physical satisfaction without the sanction of heaven, you run the terrible risk of such spiritual, psychic damage that you may undermine both your longing for physical intimacy and your ability to give wholehearted devotion to a later, truer love. You may come to that truer moment of ordained love, of real union, only to discover to your horror that what you should have saved you have spent, and that only God’s grace can recover the piecemeal dissipation of the virtue you so casually gave away. On your wedding day the very best gift you can give your eternal companion is your very best self—clean and pure and worthy of such purity in return” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1998, 100; or Ensign, Nov. 1998, 76–77).
President Boyd K. Packer described the relationship between the power of creation and the plan of salvation:
“The power of creation—or may we say procreation—is not just an incidental part of the plan: it is essential to it. Without it the plan could not proceed. The misuse of it may disrupt the plan.
“Much of the happiness that may come to you in this life will depend on how you use this sacred power of creation” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1972, 136–37; or Ensign, July 1972, 111).