Watch Yourself Or You Also May Be Tempted

Sometimes one of the hardest things one can do is try to help another up without being pulled down with them.

I’ve had several friends tell me stories of how they gave into temptation while trying to help a friend overcome theirs. Here they are wanting so badly to help a friend in need get stronger and stay clean when they, themselves, needed someone to help them stay strong.

I know first hand how difficult it can be. When I first started my journey to freedom from pornography I fell many times while trying to help someone else. I simply wasn’t strong enough.

All those images and thoughts were still too fresh in my mind to help them. I thought I could, but I was wrong.

The things they would share with me became visions in my own head and as hard as I tried to not think about them…well…you know.

Since then I have learned a thing or two. I have learned that I need someone in my corner that is stronger than me. Someone I can go to when the thoughts become to powerful after that hard conversation with someone asking for guidance. I’ve learned that praying for that person on the phone before we end said conversation lessens the visions and thoughts after we hang up. I’ve also learned that things seen can not be unseen no matter how hard we try to erase them.

Triggers, triggers, and more triggers. No matter how strong you are there will, more than likely be a word or a phrase that will bring back a memory. It’s at that moment when your strength is tested.

It is then that your integrity could be in jeopardy.

It is then when you have to realize that you can’t fight alone.

It is then that even the strongest of accountability partners need accountability.

It is then that you have to remind yourself how far you have come.

It is then that you have to realize that your true strength comes not from yourself or others but rather Christ that lives in you.

I will admit that even after all this time images will still pop into my head. And I do reach out to those friends. And I pray asking God to clear my mind. For I, above anyone else, know that one wrong turn could lead me down a road I have visited before…one I did not like travelling down.

So watch yourself dear friends so that you are not tempted and fall.

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