Lust

In today's world it is almost impossible to avoid lust.  With advertisements using sex appeal on every corner we are tempted with lust all of the time.  Lust is the excessive desire for one's own sexual pleasure.  Sexual desires are natural and are a good thing but they turn vicious when it becomes disordered and excessive and we desire the wrong things.  Sex is designed to bring two people together in union and also to make new human beings.  DeYoung says, "Proper use and enjoyment of our sexual nature should track the way sexual desire and its fulfillment can enhance our relationships with God and each other" (163).  Lust makes sexual pleasure only about one's self and not the relationship with the other person.  Lust takes the emotional part out of sex and makes it merely a physical act.  "Lust is a vice, then, because it does not honor the fullness of sex, and it alienates people from each other just when they are supposed to be experiencing intimate union," says DeYoung.  As human beings we need more than just physical pleasure, we also need spiritual pleasure.  Lust takes away the spiritual pleasure of sexual intercourse.  It leads us to have less respect for ourselves and others.  Lust is not only a physical expression, it also involves disordered sexual thoughts, fantasies, and desires.  DeYoung says there are many small things we can do to try to combat lust such as Internet filters, keeping jokes clean, wisely choose which movies and television shows we watch, and dress modestly.  These things can be helpful but the best advice, she says, is to have good friends.  She says, "Good friendships teach us how to respect one another, to offer appropriate physical affection, to appreciate and care for others without looking for something in return, to trust one another" (178).  There is a correct way to have sexual desires.  One of the last sentences of the chapter says, "Sexual desire that is rightly directed and ruled gives us eyes to see the beauty and goodness of our sexuality, and to experience the full pleasure of it virtuous expression" (179). 


Our discipline was to keep record of any advertisement we see that uses sex appeal for 24 hours.  I saw a couple advertisements for weight loss supplements on the Internet showing half-naked girls that were small and toned and guys that were muscular.  It made me realize how obsessed our culture is on the body image and sex.  We are exposed to temptations of lust everywhere we turn nowadays.