The first time I saw a naked woman was probably over at my cousin's
house looking through my uncle's Playboy magazines. Then there
were the trips to the Barbershops; you knew they had them there, but
you didn't dare look at them - one time I did and I got yelled
at. Then in high school, I had a friend who got a job working at
a 7/11 store. The hours spent there, looking at all of the girlie
magazines - looking back, I considered it wasted time now - but that's
what men did, hang out with their buds and look at naked women.
Never once did we consider these women to be sisters, mothers,
girlfriends, or even desirable to have as wives. Then these
magazines started to tell that this lady was a doctor, and this one
holds an M B A. As if this validates taking your clothes off for
a bunch of flesh-starved men. These were the types of woman you
did not want to marry. They had a reputation. They may have
been sisters, teachers, mothers, or any type of profession, but as soon
as they disrobed, they became objects of fantasy, women that you dreamt
about. They would never tell you "no." They were pretty
maids all in a row.
Then when VCR's and subscription television, the forerunner of cable,
first came out, pornography became more easily obtainable in the
privacy of your own home. You had entered into the world of
voyeurism. You still ran the risk of someone seeing you at the
corner video store or liquor store, which might question you on your
rental or purchase. Today, with internet access, you don't have
to worry about who will see you, because it can come in to your house,
into your room, and no one will know...except you and the Lord.
I'm not here to judge, condemn, or even say I'm better than the rest,
because I have fallen for all of these traps before and if I'm not
careful, I may fall for them again.
Big deal you might say, what's the to-do over a couple having sex, or
the girl down the street showing off her wares? Why don't you
just ask what is so terrible about tempting a lion with New York cut
steaks attached to your body? You get the same results. Men
are visually oriented so these images stay with us a long time, and
because they stay with us a long time, sometimes they interfere with
the reality we find in our relationships with women. We get
tainted views and it's a rude awakening when the women in our lives
don't match up with the fantasy the magazine depicts.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus preached on the strictness of the
law, "if you have looked at a woman with lust in your hearts, you have
already committed the act." The pretense is that men who are
involved with piety would probably say, "I'm a married man, and I don't
have affairs." Yet, they will look at the woman who has on
nothing but a smile, and say, "if only I had her" in their
hearts. God is the Creator of our hearts, He knows how to read
them, just like a computer programmer knows how to read a corrupted
program and fix it. Christ nailed us when He clarified the term
"adultery." We have no excuse. The Lord of All, who has
made our hearts, and has seen the filth that is on them, and has
forgiven us, He knows the temptations we go through each day. He
knows how the actions of people often start with the heart.
That's why He stated that if we really follow the law, the law would
convict us because of the evil that lies within our hearts.
These women in the magazines have their own lives to lead, and men in
their lives as well. Guess what? We're not in their lives, and
personally, I don't want to be. Don't get me wrong, I love the
female gender, by far, they're quite lovely to see. My heart,
however, has been captured by my wife, Judy: I long to be with my
wife, for I consider her a joy to be around. We have put down
many a mile between us: We have history. After twelve
years of marriage, we still flirt ~ SHAMELESSLY! (I hope we are still
flirting with each other for many, many, years to come.)
We, as men, need to be careful with our hearts. Watch our
steps, for we know what the Lord says about adultery. The whole
segment that talks about adultery is talking about the actions of the
heart. To look at a beautiful woman is not a sin in and of
itself, it's what you do with the second glance.
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