On the side you water. This is the same for marital fidelity. You can't be watering some old boyfriend's grass at the same time. It just doesn't work. You stick to your side with your spouse. I love what Pres. Monson said, "Choose your love. Love your choice." I especially love how he uses the words "fiercely loyal" to your spouse once your married. Something funny that Bro. Williams brought up yet true about the word intimate is basically saying in-to-my-mate.
The side you water is not the side of your origin of family. I remember a girl in my marriage class saying it was so hard after she got married to tell everything to her spouse and not to her mom or her girl friends who she was really close to. I used to hate that my friends changed and moved on with their lives once they got married and we didn't hang out as much and now I'm like that's the way it should be!
With regards to fidelity, it's even a problem in the Church and the sad thing is I've seen it happening and how it ended. You just can't take chances and there has to be specific boundaries with you and your spouse of what you're going to do to stay true to each other. I really like what someone brought up about how this relates to fraud in accounting. He said that there was an opportunity, an incentive, and then rationalization. With the increase spread of technology it's so become harder for members to maintain fidelity and easy for them to "rekindle" past relationships, especially through social networking like facebook. Not to mention the damaging effects of pornography. It was also interesting in my Doctrine and Covenants class that we were talking about the same thing about the scripture of cleaving unto thy wife and none else. This is not only to a person but to any other activity or distraction that would pull you away from your spouse. Bro. Baron told of a quote he heard from Elder Eyring at the time in 1994 where he said, "right now you can step into the river of wickedness and quickly come out but the time will come very soon where you it will be difficult to step into that same river and not be washed away." (It was something to that affect). What was interesting is that the internet was really launching in 1995 and we can see the enormous it has on good and evil.
Ok here is something that would apply to me only probably but I love period dramas and their plots are amazing but sometimes I secretly you watch them because of the attractive men (do you not?!) Thankfully I'm not into twilight but I never realized that I guess this series is destroying marriages like crazy and I'm not sure all of the reasons but sad to think that it was written by an LDS woman...anyway the reason I brought up period dramas and oh so handsome men is I guess from my class standpoint this could also be a form of infidelity because it's like if the husband said, "we're going to watch this great movie with Angelina Jolie because she's hot." yeah that wouldn't go well with the wife. So is the same with women and our lovely Mr. Darcy? I mean how could you not watch this guy in North and South (go ahead, take a look...wait! not if you're married don't look ;)
Another great video to watch put on by the Church.
http://lds.org/pages/mormon-messages-gallery?lang=eng&query=watch+your+step#watch-your-step
What are your thoughts on all of this?
amen to everything you said. I give satan a good grade for how he has distorted marriage and fidelity to a spouse in this world. It's so sad. It makes it even important for us to stand up and tell people the importance of marriage and live that example.
ReplyDeleteOne other thing to add to your post, is the importance of praying to have love for your spouse everyday. It wasn't until a wise woman (aka our mother) told me to do this. I thought at first that it showed a sign of weakness in our marriage that I would need to pray for that love but Satan is so strong these days we need that love everyday for our spouse to strengthen that bond. And if we aren't strengthening it we are only weaking in it.