People, men especially, assume that once they are in a marriage, all temptation miraculously goes away. Of course this isn’t true. The temptation changes, lessens in certain areas of course, but may still be there, depending on the individual.
Whatever your moral compass, you must have been set with some sort of temptation previous to marriage, whether it was cheating on a girlfriend or boyfriend, or creating an emotional bond that might not have been appropriate. Once married though, temptation can get more complicated.
For example, is hugging ever a temptation? You might not ordinarily think so, but perhaps your spouse does. So the temptation of hugging someone of the opposite sex might cause problems. Or it might not, depending on your spouse and your marriage.
What about an emotional bond with someone of the opposite sex who isn’t a blood relative? Is there a temptation there? It might be tempting to test those boundaries of what is acceptable in your marriage and what is going too far.
Let us say that you have no temptation for sexual or deep emotional contact outside of your marriage. Great! But you may also serve as a temptation for a single or troubled friend.
Temptation can take other forms as well. Perhaps you are tired at the end of the day, but your spouse really needs a listening ear or support. The temptation might be there to just tune out your spouse or put off a conversation to a later date. You might even be tempted to just go to bed to avoid an amorous spouse.
You might be tempted to bad mouth your spouse to friends or family. it would be a way to relieve your stress and maybe even get some support, but what damage will it cause?
The thing about temptation is that following it rarely results in good things.
You can read more blog posts by Mary Ann Romans here!
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