Fidelity in marriage (lesson 11)

One of the most important things to have in order to create a strong and lasting marriage is fidelity. It creates a strong and trusting relationship with our spouse. Sadly, no one is immune. We all have to safeguard ourselves when it comes to our marriage. Fidelity is defined as faithfulness to a person, cause, or belief, demonstrated by continuing loyalty and support. I believe that we all marry with the intent to remain completely faithful to our spouses but there are times when infidelity sneaks its way into our relationships without either spouse really noticing. According to Goddard there is a pattern of progression towards unfaithfulness. It starts with behaviors that seem innocent, then an affection begins to develop, this step claims a part of one’s heart, even if it’s a really small part it takes a part of your heart. The next step is extramarital flirting, and justification saying that nothing is going on or what is going on is not wrong. This new relationship is declared as special, which leads to you creating opportunities to see your “special friends”. Excuses are then made. The special friend then begins to replace the souse on an emotional level, Faultfinding in your spouse, fantasies then begin about the other person, then physical affection sets in, lastly you reach sexual relations with that person. Infidelity can come in many forms and can be tricky to spot because it creeps in slowly. One of the ways my husband and I keep our relationship pure is to share prayers together every night. It is one simple way that we are able to continue connecting with each other and our goals as a team. We also get ready for bed together every night and talk about the day. We talk about the things that went well things that we wish we had done differently and so on, doing this activity on a regular basis helps us stay on the same page, express concerns and talk things over. Those are things that we do to help our personal relationship stay strong, other things that we do, let each other know all of our passwords to phones and computers. If there is a work, or study meeting that involves the opposite gender we always make sure that there are other people attending and that it is never one on one. The last thing that we do is my favorite and we go on a weekly date night together. This helps us connect and keep the spark alive, but it also keeps it fun. I know that these are not the only ways to help protect your marriage but these are some of the things that we have found to have worked for us in our marriage.