Day 26.......Growing Through Temptation

Temptation. It seems we think it ought to be a four letter word. When in reality it does help us grow, and shows ourselves, and others....how much we have grown. Usually that is something that most folks keep to themselves. When they're tempted, and how.

When I was very young, the guy that molested me introduced me to pornography. (That's why when I heard about others' experiences with molesters,that they showed them pornography, I believed their stories.) It's been a battle with me off and on, all my life. I have to be very careful. I used to like to go from blog to blog reading different ones and whatnot. But I found that was a dangerous undertaking for me. As some blogs (until they are reported) can contain some pretty gross pornographic pictures. I know that the Lord is using me mightily in many different areas. For that, the devil is QUITE mad. I used to serve him, and now I'm messing with his kingdom by telling others about Jesus. So, yes, he will tempt me. I'm very happy to say that in that area I've been very successful in avoiding junk like that. And I've been able to say NO! to the temptations. The Lord has strengthened me a lot in that area, as there was a time, that I was very weak. It's not an excuse, but a fact. I was seeing that junk at 8 years old and up. I've had to train myself to not be caught up in it any more. It's only with the Lord's help that I've been able to unlearn that behavior.....that reaction.

Also when I was very young in the Lord, I didn't like to go eat where alcohol was served. It was just something that I didn't want to be around. It was a very familiar spirit to me. I didn't want to be around it. It doesn't bother me now, but it did at one time.

"What Christ like character quality can I develop by defeating the most common temptation I face?"

I would say the most common temptation I have now is to get upset in traffic. The character quality I could develop? Patience. :-) James

PS: I hope you're all learning from what you're reading, even if you're not participating by posting here. Look deep within and be brutally honest. If you don't feel you can open up here, PLEASE open up to someone, somewhere. It's real easy to look from the outside in and figure out what others need to do. (I see in myself, that I used to do that a lot.) It's more scary (but necessary) to open up your own can of worms and see what's in there. It's not easy. It's certainly not easy for me to admit my shortcomings. But I really hope and pray that in my doing so, that some can deal with theirs'.