Don't Fall In!

Hello everyone! Welcome to another one of my blog posts. There have been a lot of different things that have piqued my interest this week during my studies into different topics of research. To begin this post, I'd like to start off with a story. It was given by one of my professors at BYU-Idaho. His name was Mr. Williams. I won't go horribly in-depth on every little detail that was said, but I want to at least paint a picture in your mind. 

He told a story that took place during his time as a therapist, when a man came in to see him. I won't say exactly why he was there, but he felt like he was on the verge of committing adultery, and he didn't want to do that. He didn't care if he did everything else instead. He just didn't want to take that step. Mr. Williams then gave him a visual to ponder on. He told the man a story about when he was young and he wanted to go to the river to look at the fishes, even though his parents told him not to go near. Yet he still tempted fate and drew near to the ocean. Although it was never his intention, he fell in multiple times trying to look at the fish. The closer he got, the harder it was not to fall in. He compared this to the situation the man was now facing. He was tempting fate, trying to go as close as he could without falling in. It does not work like that. The closer and closer he gets, the easier it is to fall in, no matter if it is intentional or not. 

So where do we draw the line?

We should draw the line before we even take a first step towards that river. Granted, I can't speak for everyone here. This is an internal decision that you all have to make for yourself. But, at least for me, I have made it a goal to not take any type of first step that will lead me on a trajectory off of the pathway that God has established for His children. It is not smart. The more steps you take, the easier those steps become, until you find yourself in a situation that you do not want to be in. And it all starts with those simple steps. 

Someday, I'm going to be married. It's a weird thought to think about and I honestly don't see it happening at least anytime soon, but I know that eventually it'll (probably) happen. Over the course of this past week, I have learned the importance of having boundaries as a married couple. There were even some boundaries that I hadn't even really thought of before as needed. A lot of couples end up failing during their marriage because they don't anticipate the need for boundaries. This leads to a lot of problems that they didn't consider were going to be problems. We need to leave behind in the past the things that would get in the way of marriage. This includes past friends (mostly of the opposite gender), media (it is an easy distractor and focuses your attention away from your spouse), and sometimes even your own family. These things, if left out of control, can lead to very unsatisfying marriages and many problems can result from these seemingly small problems. In the scriptures, the word is uses is the word 'cleave'. We really need to cleave to our spouse, which means to hold tightly to them, and never let anything get in the way of your attention on them. 

I have learned so much this week and I think it is preparing me for when those days eventually come for me! There's still so much to learn but this is a great start.