First of all, I want to say that for everyone who posts, please don't be hurt or offended or afraid that I overlooked your post if I don't answer it specifically. I try to wait to post these types of threads on my days off so I'll have more time to keep up with them, but people are writing so many amazing, helpful testimonies and advice here that I may not be able to keep up individually.
But please be assured that I am reading -- and appreciate -- every single post.
One thing I especially like about your testimony, @Live4Him3, is that you've given us the entire cycle of what someone's personal walk, struggle, and victory might look like. It's a great encouragement to those who are right in the midst and think it's impossible, as well as practical advice to even those who might not be struggling with this, but are fighting in other areas of their lives.
Thank you for taking the time to post your own heartfelt journey.
One of the things that frustrates me about the Christian community, or rather the ones I have been around, is that there is what I interpret as a lot of naivete and victim-blaming when people become entrenched in these kinds of addictions.
It's kind of like, "Oh, you awful sinner, how could you pick up that terrible magazine/click on that site/watch that sinful movie that you should have known better to watch!"
It truly grieves my heart that many seem either unaware, or won't accept that many people stumble onto these things when they're young and don't even really know what it is or how it will form a death grip around them. And I think it's even more important to realize that this demon can literally come in ANY form around us.
I remember a long time ago when I was a kid when my family was talking about how advertising and television was changing -- and not for the better. My Grandpa brought up the fact that when they first started showing ads for women's underwear, the items were displayed on models and mannequins -- but they eventually started showing them on actual women.
I've read many cases in which people got hooked on porn not because of Playboy or a hidden movie in their parent's closet, but because of comic books, regular everyday advertising, billboards, novels (written words vs. images,) and even medical charts and pamphlets. And it's no wonder in a culture that is trying to promote every time of perversion as just a "curiosity."
Shoot, I was at the doctor's not too long ago, and, after seeing all the incredibly graphic charts of human anatomies on the walls, was wondering how many people, both men and women, have developed a sexual addiction just because of something they saw in their doctor's office, or anatomy and biology textbooks/classes. I'm not saying these things aren't useful and necessary for medical knowledge, but the problem is that we live in a culture that tries to associate everything with experiencing sex.
I think many Christians assume that sexual addictions are for "the weak willed," or people who somehow purposely got themselves into trouble. They don't seem to realize or recognize that the thing that got Brother Billy started was his Mom's Victoria's Secret catalog in the mail and his sister's naked Barbie dolls, or that Sister Sally developed a problem while flipping through certain pages of her mother's "romance" novels.
This is always something that's very heavy on my heart because it really is literally EVERYWHERE, and I'm always asking God how we can fight this in a practical way.
Ideally, it would be before it even starts.
But how, without closing ourselves off in a literal bubble?
But please be assured that I am reading -- and appreciate -- every single post.
One thing I especially like about your testimony, @Live4Him3, is that you've given us the entire cycle of what someone's personal walk, struggle, and victory might look like. It's a great encouragement to those who are right in the midst and think it's impossible, as well as practical advice to even those who might not be struggling with this, but are fighting in other areas of their lives.
Thank you for taking the time to post your own heartfelt journey.
One of the things that frustrates me about the Christian community, or rather the ones I have been around, is that there is what I interpret as a lot of naivete and victim-blaming when people become entrenched in these kinds of addictions.
It's kind of like, "Oh, you awful sinner, how could you pick up that terrible magazine/click on that site/watch that sinful movie that you should have known better to watch!"
It truly grieves my heart that many seem either unaware, or won't accept that many people stumble onto these things when they're young and don't even really know what it is or how it will form a death grip around them. And I think it's even more important to realize that this demon can literally come in ANY form around us.
I remember a long time ago when I was a kid when my family was talking about how advertising and television was changing -- and not for the better. My Grandpa brought up the fact that when they first started showing ads for women's underwear, the items were displayed on models and mannequins -- but they eventually started showing them on actual women.
I've read many cases in which people got hooked on porn not because of Playboy or a hidden movie in their parent's closet, but because of comic books, regular everyday advertising, billboards, novels (written words vs. images,) and even medical charts and pamphlets. And it's no wonder in a culture that is trying to promote every time of perversion as just a "curiosity."
Shoot, I was at the doctor's not too long ago, and, after seeing all the incredibly graphic charts of human anatomies on the walls, was wondering how many people, both men and women, have developed a sexual addiction just because of something they saw in their doctor's office, or anatomy and biology textbooks/classes. I'm not saying these things aren't useful and necessary for medical knowledge, but the problem is that we live in a culture that tries to associate everything with experiencing sex.
I think many Christians assume that sexual addictions are for "the weak willed," or people who somehow purposely got themselves into trouble. They don't seem to realize or recognize that the thing that got Brother Billy started was his Mom's Victoria's Secret catalog in the mail and his sister's naked Barbie dolls, or that Sister Sally developed a problem while flipping through certain pages of her mother's "romance" novels.
This is always something that's very heavy on my heart because it really is literally EVERYWHERE, and I'm always asking God how we can fight this in a practical way.
Ideally, it would be before it even starts.
But how, without closing ourselves off in a literal bubble?
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