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Previous Q & A Addictions: Q. I am fixated on pornography and sexual thoughts. I've tried tgo avoid them but one way or another, they always come back to me through newspapers, magazines, the internet, etc. How do I get rid of them? A. Imagine you are inside a boxing ring and your opponent is a champion sumo wrestler, three times bigger and three times stronger than you. That sumo wrestler is your sexual temptation. Who do you think will win the fight? In a moment, he will not only win, he'll beat the living daylights out of you. Every time. In fact, that's what's happening right now. You need to starve him and feed yourself. You see, every time you look at a woman with lustful eyes, visit porn sites, watch sexually charged movies, look at magazine pictures of naked, or near-naked women, you are feeding the sumo wrestler - your sexual thoughts. This way, he'll keep on winning all the time. Instead, starve him. systematically stop feeding your sexual temptation. Make a conscious decision to not fixate on a woman, set up parental controls to block inappropriate sites on your computer, skip that newspaper page, watch a different movie. Besides, start cultivating healthier habits. That's when you feed yourself, your spiritual life. Read the Bible more. Get out more. Take up some activity based on your interests. Fill up your time, and avoid being alone for long periods in a room. This way, this giant will die a slow death until it will be completely gone and will no longer bother you. Now go ahead and do it. Start now! Q. I have become addicted to the internet. I'm on it all the time. I've gotten too lazy to read books or even the Bible. I feel so far from God. I want to get rid of this, what can I do? A. You can start a Chain of Prayer to beat the addiction. That means coming to the services of the church every week for a series of weeks to fight against your problem and get spiritual support as well. But on top of this, you will also have to take ACTION. This is not something that anyone else can do for you. YOU are the one that decides whether to switch on your computer or read your Bible, and so far you've allowed your flesh to take over. You may choose, for example, to use the Internet only in school to complete your assignments and to remove your connections to the net at home so that you're not tempted. When something becomes an addiction, the best policy is to stay away from it completely. If the temptation is constantly around you, it will be almost impossible to resist it.
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