Guardrails in Marriage
Dear Champions,
The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley, and the Scripture is in the excerpt.
A guardrail is placed in a safe zone to keep us from going into an unsafe zone. It is a standard of behavior you choose that becomes a matter of conscience and will keep you a few feet or yards away from disaster.
You can fully recover from just about any other kind of disaster but sexual disaster is almost impossible to fully recover from. When it comes to the area of your sexuality, these are the stories that nobody laughs at later in life. When a person crosses certain lines when it comes to their sexuality there are things that they carry with them for the rest of their lives. We need guardrails in this area of life.
1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. If you are married, these guardrails are what you want your spouse to do. It's what you want everyone that you care about to do, but you just aren't so sure that you want you to do this. You need to decide, "This is as close to that as I go," and when I bump up against my personal standard of behavior, I'm going to feel guilty. I'm going to make a big deal out of something that is five yards away from disaster. I'm not going to live out on the edge of that line anymore.
If you are Christian we believe that God's spirit comes to live inside of your physical body. It does not just belong to you because God moved into your body. You are no longer a slave to sin, and you don't have to what your desires tell you to do. Honor God with your body. If it is dishonoring to God, don't do it with your body. Establish some guardrails. If you live on the edge and step over it, it will be a disaster. However, if you bump into your guardrails, there are no consequences.
God willing, specific marriage guardrails are coming next week! Have a great week!-David Vining
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