CAUTION-EXPLOSIVE

Day Fourteen

CAUTION-EXPLOSIVE (Read Proverbs 6:20-35)

"If you want to destroy any nation without war, make adultery or nudity common in the young generation." ~ Saladin

Today, we are on the eve of Independence Day in America. According to the American Pyrotechnics Association, people used 273.6 million lbs of fireworks at a purchase price of $2.7 billion in 2023. Despite all the warning labels on fireworks, "CAUTION-EXPLOSIVE," according to Inside Climate News, on average, 18,500 are caused by fireworks yearly.  

Today's wisdom reading contains the same warning label, "CAUTION-EXPLOSIVE," related to marriage and adultery. If you choose to step outside your marriage, you are likely to get severely burned, if not lose your life altogether. Yet, despite all the warning labels, Research from the past two decades of data shows that between 20 and 25 percent of married men cheat, and between 10 and 15 percent of married women cheat, according to Professor Nicholas Wolfinger from the University of Utah, and other data suggests its closer to 40 percent. 

Think for a moment all the potential harms you subject yourself and your family to when committing adultery: sexually transmitted disease, unplanned pregnancy, fatal attraction, blackmail, risk of bodily injury or death by a jealous friend or spouse, loss of reputation, loss of employment, the loss of respect and dignity of your family and friends, etc. Trust is the hardest thing to earn and the quickest to lose.

According to data from Northwestern School of Law, around one-half to two-thirds of homicides are unpremeditated crimes of passion arising out of altercations over matters which, from a middle-class perspective, hardly warrant such an extreme response. Friends, the data supports the warning labels. Count the Costs! 

³² But the man who commits adultery is an utter fool,
    for he destroys himself.
³³ He will be wounded and disgraced.
    His shame will never be erased.
³⁴ For the woman's jealous husband will be furious,
    and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
³⁵ He will accept no compensation
    nor be satisfied with a payoff of any size.

"Bad marriages don't cause infidelity; infidelity causes bad marriages." ~ Frank Pittman

What is the shape of your relationship? If you want to know the truth, ask your partner! If you have to think about it or concede it's in serious trouble, seek help from God and professionals. To do nothing is to leave the front door wide open for the enemy to walk right in with a box of fireworks and shoot them off inside your home, mostly like burning your house and life to the ground.