SHAKE OFF THE CHAINS WITH WHICH YE ARE BOUND

I just had a heart breaking conversation with a woman from Utah whose husband has struggled with pornography to the point he is near implosion.  My object in reaching out to her was to try and I still the need for patience with him.  I have met them at a Wood Zone conference I did in Eest Jordan back in 2013 in West Jordan in the heyday of the blog.  Both upstanding people, but he is potentially fatally weak.  A weakness is only fatal when one refuses to acknowledge it or to address it in a meaningful way.  We are all broken and fall short - but there is a point where patience and endurance come to a finite end.  I would NEVER encourage the dissolution of a marriage - for I think the consequences of doing so can have dire and eternal consequences.  But each person knows their depth of suffering and what they are capable of enduring.

The hardest thing is looking beyond the pain and suffering and seeing our cohorts, spouses and family members as God sees them.  Their potential outside of this earthly realm.  Truly, God will push us to our very limits.  I know I have been in my marriage and family relations.  And I am a better person for having been taken to those extremes.  I would not trade the journey I have been on, for anything.

Nevertheless, we all know where that line is.  No one can define it for anyone else.

In regards to pornography addiction, my wife and I were discussing this situation and she said this husband just needs to read the part in Visions of Glory where the evil spirits are jumping in and out of  the indulging husband.  Another help for fathers of young women is to realize that the women in the images they are viewing are often trafficked, drugged up and are forced into what they are doing out of desperation; therefore, what would they do if one of their own daughters were caught in this trap?

My sister’s best friend was trafficked back in the 1980’s.  It was real bad.  Her life was destroyed.  She is almost 50 and she is still a train wreck...

Satan’s goal is to trap and allow appetites of the fallen man to bring him under his power; thus negating or trivializing the effects of the Atonement.

Our job is to identify sin in our lives, acknowledge it, and fight it each day.  I know most of mine - and the struggle is real.

Here is a talk by Marvin J Ashton on the matter:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1986/10/shake-off-the-chains-with-which-ye-are-bound?lang=eng&id=p35#p35

Worth a listen!