Protect Your Marriage from Affairs by Steve and Cindy Wright.

“To stand firm in the battle for our marriages, we must be prepared. We  can never assume that having a good marriage shelters us from temptation.  In this age of “anything goes,” the wise woman will purposefully build  walls around her marriage ahead of time to help close the door on  opportunities for temptation” (Judy Starr).
 That also goes for the wise man.  Last week we talked about our marriages being more vulnerable to infidelity than we realize. For various reasons we think it could happen  to everyone else but us. But as we also discussed last week that’s also  what Judy Starr thought.
 Judy is the author of a book titled, The Enticement of the Forbidden. She  and her husband had a great ministry to over 40 countries showing the Jesus film and never thought either of them could be attracted to anyone else because they loved each other and were happily involved in ministry work together. But they let their guard down and Judy found herself  tempted. This can be a lesson for all of us because if it could happen to  Judy, it could happen to any one of us.
Building upon last week’s message, which was prompted by a 2-part  interview with Judy we heard on the radio program Family Life Today  www.familylife.org with Dennis Rainey, we’d like to share a few more  things from this interview that we think everyone could find beneficial.  
 As the Bible says, “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that  you don’t fall!” We’re hoping this message will help us to be more careful so none of us fall as Judy did. We’re all vulnerable to temptation if we  don’t stay on the alert as the scriptures tell us in 1 Peter 5.  First off, we want to say that Judy was fortunate because her husband  wanted to work with her to rebuild their broken relationship. That doesn’t  always happen. She and her husband Stotler began the process of putting their marriage back together the way God showed them. 
  She said: “I began making our marriage the priority that God intended it to be in the first place. I had allowed work to overshadow that, so I  really focused on our marriage.”
“I also really worked on rebuilding trust. Anytime I felt there was  something Stotler needed to know or wanted to ask, I’d give him that  opportunity; or I’d share with him things that I felt were important for   him to know, so that he really sensed I wasn’t trying to hide anything. I really wanted to rebuild trust in our relationship.”
 What else did Judy and her husband do to rebuild a healthier marriage? She said: “There are basic things any marriage needs to do to build walls of  protection around them, not only to reestablish trust but for the future  of that marriage.”
 The following are important practices Judy shares in this interview and  her book that will strengthen and fortify the walls around your marriage:   • “The first thing is, having our times with the Lord individually. I  don’t believe there is anything more important that protects our  marriage than our individual time with the Lord, making sure that we’re  yielded to Him and willing to do anything that He tells us to every day.
 That’s absolutely the most important thing that we can do daily.”
 • “And then there’s the issue of learning to protect our relationship with  other men, how we respond to them, because in this society, it’s such a  lax situation between men and women and the friendships that grow. It’s  very easy for a friendship to grow quickly beyond the bounds that God  intends for a friendship with another man.”
 (Please note that the same goes for a man with a woman. Judy’s testimony is aimed at women but that doesn’t make it any less significant for men to apply these principles.)
 Judy was then asked: “As you look at friendships with men from church and  in ministry with you, what keeps it an appropriate versus an inappropriate friendship?”
 She replied: “I call it building an ‘invisible wall,’ and certainly one of  the first things is not sharing personal, private information —anything  that should be kept exclusively for my husband and for that relationship.
 “If I find myself looking forward to sharing something with another man  rather than my husband, that’s definitely a red flag. I need to focus on  sharing all the things that are important in my life with my husband,  first and foremost, so those needs for intimacy are met in that relationship.”
  (Again, this applies to men and their dealings with other women.)
  • “Build protective walls in the workplace. The workplace is one of the first places women are being drawn to men, because there are so many women in the workforce these days, and it’s so easy. As women —we go to lunch with the men we work with, we’re dressed our best, we’re working  with other men on the same important projects. It’s the same kind of  driving thing all day.
 By the time you go home, you’ve already shared your heart with everybody  else. You have nothing that you need to share with your husband anymore. We need to be so careful of saving those kinds of intimacies and those  things that are exciting in our lives to be able to share with our husband.”
 Please men — this applies to you also.
 • “Protect your marriage through discretion in clothing. Men become easily aroused sexually by the stimulation of sight. Therefore, what we wear is  very important. To attract men to you sexually by the clothing you  choose is to defraud them because you cannot (or should not!) fulfill  the desire you arouse. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-6 tells us, ‘For this is the will of God—that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in  sanctification and honor, and that no man transgress and defraud his
  brother in this matter.’”
  • Protect your marriage by spending time together. One of the best guards against infidelity comes from having your emotional needs met within your marriage. That means sticking to the plan of spending time alone together each week! Unless we purposefully protect that time, all of  life’s “urgent” needs will undermine our marital intimacy like termites  that slowly eat away the foundation of a house. What can be more urgent   than protecting your marriage?
  • Protect your marriage through accountability. Accountability to a mature   godly woman [is] invaluable. Accountability may be the key issue that  makes or breaks our faithfulness to God and to our spouse. There are other important things Judy Starr shares in her book, The  Enticement of the Forbidden. And there are other things included in this  compelling interview that you may want to learn about.