Manly Man Training #21: Watch your step

When we are following the Lord, we value the things that the Lord values.  We have been taught for years what is most important.  After our personal relationship with the Lord, we are taught that our families, our wife, and our children are of most value to us.  This remains true even if we are not married yet.  Do we think of our family when we are away from them?  Do we make sacrifices willingly for them.  In making sacrifices I am not just referring to time, but do we throw away the appetites and passions that are not appropriate for a Manly Man to have.  Do we remember our wife as the only one that we think of sexually? 

Look but don't touch is a Satanic lie.  If you look you are already in danger.  If you are in danger
get away!  Interestingly with pornography that differs from a snake, if you think you are in danger. 

The world teaches things like, "it is okay to look but not touch" or "as long as no one is hurt [read 'no one knows'] then it is alright.  Pornography is a harmful choice.  It attempts to take the natural sexual interest of a man and use it to harm much more than himself.  And much more than harming his wife.  Even more than harming his children.  It harms all people and does so in a variety of ways.  

You may say, "I didn't pay anything for it." and you may be accurate financially but you did pay for it in your relationships and in your spiritual life.  You paid for it by saying amen to your Priesthood for at least a time.  You paid for it by making your sealing in the temple to no affect, at least for a time, you paid for it by making your children fatherless in the eternities at least for a time.  You are hurting many.  The interesting thing is that they don't even know it ...yet.   

We must protect ourselves and through us our family from this terrible harmful and devastating evil.

Mormon Messages: Watch You Step:

Dallin Oaks said in his April 2005 conference talk:

"Pornography impairs one’s ability to enjoy a normal emotional, romantic, and spiritual relationship with a person of the opposite sex...As conscience is desensitized, patrons of pornography are led to act out what they have witnessed, regardless of its effects on their life and the lives of others.

Don’t accommodate any degree of temptation. Prevent sin and avoid having to deal with its inevitable destruction. So, turn it off! Look away! Avoid it at all costs. Direct your thoughts in wholesome paths. Remember your covenants and be faithful in temple attendance. The wise bishop I quoted earlier reported that “an endowed priesthood bearer’s fall into pornography never occurs during periods of regular worship in the temple; it happens when he has become casual in his temple worship” (letter of Mar. 13, 2005).

We must also act to protect those we love...And we should build the spiritual strength of our families by loving relationships, family prayer, and scripture study."