DIVORCE & LUST

Bet that title caught your attention..lol! Actually, something I read the other day caught my eye and has had me thinking ever since. "Lust means 'I must have it at once, and I don't care what the consequences are.'* It may be a low, animal lust, or it may be a mental lust, or a moral or spiritual lust; but it is a characteristic that does not belong to the life hid with Christ in God. Love is the opposite; love can wait endlessly."--Oswald Chambers.

With divorce comes a slew of unmeet needs and desires. Perhaps it is feeling lonely and alone and wanting to fill that emotional void. Maybe it is wanting pain to stop and doing whatever to alleviate that pain, even for a short time. Sexuality doesn't disappear just because one no longer has a spouse. It could be wanting to buy something and not having extra cash and putting off bills instead to make the purchase. Or facing disappointing your kids again and again, when what they are asking for is not really that much, and then giving in when you know you shouldn't.

I have been evaluating my life to see if I am making poor decisions because I want something right now. This is pretty tough, since some things are good and even very, very good. I think "lust" as Chambers has defined it, is a trap for many of us divorced folks. We fall into its grasp without even realizing it and then have to dig ourselves out of debt, bad relationships, poor choices, and sin. Even more heartbreaking, is when we have affected our kids and then have to watch the consequences of our lust take a stranglehold on their lives.

Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind. --Ecclesiastes 6:9

Ounce for ounce, pound for pound....there is nothing that I want or desire that can even compare to a life hid in Christ. Here's to letting go!

Please be praying for the divorce recovery group I am a part of.

*Note: This does NOT apply to dishwashers--wink!