Proverbs 7

So again, proverbs gives more instruction on avoiding adultery in Chapter 7. Clearly this is a heavy topic and of great importance. To be honest I find it hard to apply instructions to avoid adultery because it makes every sense to me that it is a completely wrong thing. In fact, at less than a month from getting married, I honestly can't even imagine being enamored with another woman besides Susan. I honestly hope that the feeling stays with me forever, but I've heard and I think I understand other people when they say that Love is a choice in addition to a feeling. Absolutely, I love Susan; both as a feeling of the heart and as a choice. But I can see that I need to renew that choice every day, or like in yesterday's chapter, "a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands too rest, and poverty will come on you like a bandit." Complacency can bring disaster. That applies here as well. One day at a time might not change much, but cumulatively, many days of forgetting that loving Susan is a choice can start to compromise what I think I feel. My take-away from this reading is that, first as verses 2-5 say "keep my commands...write them on the tablet of your heart...call understanding your kinsman, and they will keep you from the adulteress" and, second, I need to remember that each day I make a choice to love Susan. This way no matter what we fight about or how angry or frustrated I might get with her, my love for her will not hesitate and I will never be compromised by even thinking of making the choice of adultery. I'm glad that I have all of you as Godly men in my life both as examples to me and as witnesses to what I attest here and to what I promise to Susan at our wedding. I understand that I am committing to be faithful to her until the day I die and I take that very seriously. So, coming back to how I started this, Proverbs rightly applies seriousness to the topic of adultery. And it is up to me to choose every day that I love Susan and to honor God and her with my commitment. -Bob