Fences to Protect Your Integrity

As I strive toward the integrity that God intends me to have, I have found that I must place in my life fences to protect this integrity. These are Moral Fences to guard my heart. I am taking part in a Leadership Class at church and one of the Character Traits of a godly leader is that they are sexually pure. This is an area that our society in America scoffs at and belittles constantly.

So, what are the moral fences that I have placed around my heart? Here is a list that I have developed over the past year.

1. I will not turn on the TV in a motel room when staying alone. Sound silly? Well, tough beanies. I am serious about my integrity and I want my bride to be completely at ease when I am out-of-town on business.
2. I will not drink any alcohol when I am away from my wife. I only have an occasional beer anyway but I see to much happen when people 'loosen up' after a drink or two.
3. I will not ride in a car alone with any other women except my wife or my daughters. Is it that I'm some pervert? NO, it is just a faith issue to me to have these fences in place.
4. I will not watch any movies or TV shows that show sex scenes. This is difficult as some happen without much warning and when that does happen, I will leave the room momentarily or even close my eyes. Again, I do not want ANYTHING to tug at my heart in that way but my bride.
5. I use a technique that is know as 'bouncing of the eyes'. I live in Florida and women here sometimes dress pretty scantily. When someone dressed like that comes into my view, I quickly 'bounce my eyes' away from her. Its not the first glance that would get me in trouble; it is the second. I will not allow that to happen.
6. I compliment my wife constantly to others. I also have an 'I Love My Wife' bumper sticker on my car which I have found to be a great tool that starts conversations. People constantly ask me if my wife 'made' me put the sticker on my car.

Do you have any additional moral fences that you use? Tell me about them. Maybe it is something that I can incorporate in my life as well.

Two Shall Become One

I went to a marriage conference this weekend with my bride of 26 years. What a wonderful time we had and learned so much that can make our marriage even better. I want our marriage to last a lifetime as God intended when He created it. For that to happen, we must take the time necessary to look inward as well as outward to see what we can to to better meet each others needs.

God brought to light an area that I need to make a lot of change. I have taken the role as 'spiritual leader' of my family very, very seriously and in doing so, I seem to have crossed some lines toward dictatorship (not really that extreme ... still, read on).

We live on a farm whose income comes primarily from citrus. There is some unused acreage that we want to develop in some way to help with the income of the farm but we have not come to any conclusions. Kay has often come up with ideas but I have squashed them quickly thinking that I'm the know-it-all. This weekend, I have come to the realization that on many, many subjects; I'm in fact the 'know-it-little'. I have not honored Kay's ideas as I should have. For that my precious love... I am sorry. I will try harder in this area.