A young couple were on their honeymoon. The husband was sitting in the bathroom on the edge of the bathtub saying to himself, “Now how can I tell my wife that I’ve got really smelly feet and that my socks absolutely stink? I’ve managed to keep it from her while we were dating, but she’s bound to find out sooner or later that my feet stink. Now how do I tell her?”
Meanwhile, the wife was sitting in the bed saying to herself, “Now how do I tell my husband that I’ve got really bad breath? I’ve been very lucky to keep it from him while we were courting, but as soon as he’s lived with me for a week, he’s bound to find out. Now how do I tell him gently?”
The husband finally plucks up enough courage to tell his wife and so he walks into the bedroom. He walks over to the bed, climbs over to his wife, puts his arm around her neck, moves his face very close to hers and says, “Darling, I’ve a confession to make.”
And she says, “So have I, love.”
To which he replies, “Don’t tell me, you’ve eaten my socks.”
LOL. Who knows if that marriage will make it !?!
If we are serious about affair-proofing our marriage, we must not check out the rest of the population and ask the spiritually dangerous question: “Did I marry the right person?” That question cannot have a good answer. The person you married is now your God given standard of a handsome man or a beautiful woman.
A long lasting good marriage IS God’s idea! As we saw in last week’s article, the first step is to commit to His plan. Just as we know that choosing God’s plan for our marriage is the beginning of having a good, long lasting one, so we must also guard against the continuous immoral temptations that come to destroy it.
Hebrews 13:4 (NIV) Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
One day I was returning from a ministry trip to serve pastors in Eastern Europe. I had to stay overnight by myself (a practice I never do) in Frankfurt, Germany. As I walked to a restaurant a few streets over from the hotel, I found myself on a street filled with porn shops and strip clubs. Not only that, but at each establishment was a hustler on the sidewalk doing all they could to get you inside. No one was with me. No one would know if I went in. So in my mind, I visualized the front page for the Brownsville Herald: “ Pastor of Brownsville church caught in Strip Club !!!” That was enough motivation to escape. Plus I felt like punching out one of the pimps in Jesus’ name (just kidding). Looking in the faces of my children and admitting I was unfaithful to their mother was something I never wanted to do.
The price is too high to lose your family over immorality. There is a high cost to low living. The price is something we do not want to pay. If we will do whatever it takes to stay faithful, we get the reward of a long lasting family…. It is worth it!