Building Trust
I wonder if all of us at some time had that talk with our parents where we had done something very wrong and the conversation that was happening was our parents telling us they had lost all trust in us. Oh, they still loved us but what we did would take time to rebuild trust.
As stated in Hebrews, we have not struggled against sin to the point of shedding blood. When temptation rears its ugly head do you resist with all you have? We have many broken homes and marriages because temptation is too strong. But sometimes to resist is mentally challenging but physically is simple to do. For the physical side turn off the TV or computer. Walk away. Begin to pray for grace and strength to resist. Do not put yourself into temptations way. Protect your eyes. Realize when temptation strikes your initial thoughts are not necessarily sinful.
Where you get into problems is allowing those second thoughts to take over mind and heart – this is when it becomes sinful. All these suggestions are simple to do. The challenge is getting our heart, mind, and body to do them. There is too much inertia mentally to move away. And second, our mental images are too often too graphic, and we think we receive pleasure from them. But it is all false pleasure that in the end hurts us. We fall into sin.
Rebuilding trust. We must always remember God loves us. He grants us graces every day to wage war on sin. And when we fail, He is merciful and willing to forgive. Most of our sinful emotions attack us at the most for maybe fifteen or twenty minutes. Then our minds move on to something else. Fight the temptation with all you have for those twenty minutes. You can control your emotions.
But if you fail do not beat yourself up. Acknowledge you have sinned, ask God for forgiveness immediately, resolve to do better and come to confession at your next opportunity.
May the Lord bless you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen