Pornography Addiction

QUESTION: Where can I find freedom from pornography addiction?

ANSWER:

My husband found freedom from pornography addiction before we met and married. His freedom from pornography came by disciplining himself in actions, in speech, and in thoughts. Pornography will permeate an individual's life, tainting one's very soul.

Pornography crosses all economic lines and gender. As in my husband's experience and coming from a dysfunctional family, pornography was introduced to him at a very young age. He was five years old when his father demonstrated sexual intercourse with a female adult while my husband watched. His father would then have him act out the sensual moves on the woman's young daughter.

Sexual activity was expected in my husband's young teenage years, as peer pressure pushed youths' lustful desires, deeming pornography to be the acceptable behavior. It proved his sexual prowess, availability, manipulative skills, and maturity.

Pornography follows its slaves into all areas of their lives. It breaks up families, assaults children, and perverts innocence. The statistics of my husband's peers in growing up is sadly littered with ruined lives. Three of them, my husband being one of them, had a change of heart that transformed their lives for the good. The rest are in prison or dead, all with tragic stories in which pornography was the controlling factor in their lives.

The transformation in my husband's life came when he found Jesus' forgiveness that freed him from his pornographic addiction. He was 35-years-old, when he allowed Christ to make sweeping changes in his life. He asked God to change his heart and give him strength to deal with the memories of all the filth.

My husband's spiritual mentor instructed him to read the book of Proverbs in the Bible. There are thirty-one chapters in the book, a chapter a day for a month. Hungry for change, my husband devoured Proverbs month after month until he understood how God wanted him to behave as a man and not how his earthly father had taught him.

The thought life can be controlled. We as individuals can gain authority over our minds. Research shows us that men have sexual thoughts every ten minutes and women come into their sexual pique at thirty years of age. We cannot keep unwanted thoughts from invading our minds, but we can control whether we dwell on those thoughts and allow them to stay. God does not hold us accountable for the thoughts, but He does hold us accountable for how we act upon those thoughts. If pornographic addiction is fed and nurtured, it will lead to degradation and perverseness, prison, or death.

My husband wants those struggling with pornographic addiction to know that forgiveness and peace of mind does come when one seeks a change of heart. He wants the people to know that the memories of the filth do haunt the consciences, but healing of those memories comes with God's forgiveness. He has stood upon that promise of God's for decades now, free from all pornographic addiction.

To learn practical strategies for combating pornography addiction, please read Every Man's Battle by Stephen Arterburn and Fred Stoeker.