Saturday, September 3, 2011 - Why Be Captivated?

"May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer --- may her breasts satisfy you always.

Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another man's wife? For a man's ways are in full view of the LORD, and He examines all His paths." 

Proverbs 5:18-21

"But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself." Proverbs 6:32

     For my grandmother, it was Dean Martin. For my mom, Paul Newman. For me - well, I can't think of just one. I have an embarrassingly long list of favorite movies featuring top shelf, out-of-reach eye candy. 

     Solomon, the child produced from a union that began as an adulterous affair between David and Bathsheba, warned his own son to run from adulterous eyes that flirt and invite.  He'd heard from at least his mother and his father that a supposedly simple one-night-stand can take people to dark places they never intended to go and bring out weaknesses no one wants to discover they have.  Scripture teaches that casual sex leads to intensely painful consequences for the two involved, for their families, the community, and society in general.  You and I both know families who've paid dearly for someone's unfaithfulness, and if we could, we would delete those scenes.  

     Solomon's wise phrasing "Why be captivated?" indicates that at some point we consciously decide to be captivated. We're not helpless victims doomed to respond to every instinct, overpowered by the need to fall into the next available relationship or bed.  We choose our chains because no one-night-stand "just happens" unless the two people involved allow and encourage it to "just happen."  Instead of using our eyes to flirt with and devour eye candy, God calls us to feed our marriage relationships that once, and can again, captivate our hearts and nourish our souls. We can choose intentionally to be captivated by the one we've already chosen.

Father, guide us to feed our families' souls by nourishing our marriages. May we be faithful to our spouses in our hearts and allow them to captivate us while we do our best to captivate them.  Show us how; teach us to love in action and secure our homes. May our children and grandchildren see relationships they want to experience for themselves. Help us raise the bar. 

In the Name of Jesus who blessed a marriage celebration with His first miracle!

Inspired by Live Loved, by Max Lucado
clip art from Google images