As a teen, Megan arrived home from school just in time to watch an hour of soap operas before doing her homework. She enjoyed the escape into the TV world and wasn’t aware that the programmes were arousing sexual curiosity in her. After years of exposure to these soaps, her perspective on life took a shift. She began to think, ‘Relationships don’t need to be pure. In fact, the impure ones seem more exciting. Fidelity doesn’t matter, as long as a person is happy.’ As a college student, Megan found it easy to participate in one-night stands. Then after a short marriage ended in catastrophe as a result of her infidelity, she sought help from a counsellor. At first it was difficult for the counsellor to understand why Megan engaged in extramarital affairs. She had been a model teenager at home, church, and school, as far as her public behaviour was concerned. Finally the counsellor discovered the source of the temptation that drove Megan to participate in her supposed hidden life. What you watch on television and the internet becomes part of your memory bank. You’re putting images on file that Satan will use against you. David’s affair with Bathsheba started with a wrong look and ended up bringing tragedy to his family. Later David wrote: ‘I will lead a life of integrity in my own home. I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar…I will reject perverse ideas and stay from every evil…I will search for faithful people to be my companions’ (vv. 2-4, 6 NLT).

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.