![]() The fact that lust is usually the last stronghold of sexual addiction to be conquered as we recover, is illustrated by SA’s statement that “True sobriety includes progressive victory over lust.” ( Sexaholics Anonymous, 4). In other words, if I wanted to avoid being lured into viewing pornography, I had better pay attention to every lustful thought as soon as it appeared and surrender it to the Lord. I found this was a true principle, even when applied to acting out with pornography instead of another living person. If we don’t want to end up at the end of the road, we’d better not even start on it. As I have prayed and pondered about the Savior’s statement, I have come to believe that what He was really saying to us is that our actions always begin with our thoughts and desires. If you have also felt this way, I plead with you to recognize Satan’s attempt to lead you carefully down to hell (2 Nephi 28:21). In hindsight, I can see that this train of thought was an enticement to lead me on into a degree of sin I had not yet committed. Under the influence of his lying spirit, I believed that even though I had never committed adultery, by looking upon women and lusting after them I was just as far gone as if I had committed adultery. In typical fashion, the adversary convinced me to apply this scripture to myself in the most negative way possible. It says, “I want something that doesn’t belong to me.” The Savior warned about lust when he said: Living Step Ten results in our being enabled to recognize and attend to smaller sins, as the bigger ones are put behind us. Like this accomplished artist, I, too, in the spirit of Step Ten, must be willing to see my life as “a work in progress.” As long as I am mortal, I will need to look for areas to improve at a deeper and finer level of repentance. When he got to the point where nothing about the painting bothered him, he decided it was finished. ![]() He said he would usually repeat this process several times-each time fixing smaller and smaller problems. (He said his wife could never understand why he couldn’t push a vacuum cleaner around while he was studying the painting!) But as he studied it, some part of the painting would stand out because it “didn’t look quite right.” Then he would take the painting back to his studio and work on the part that bothered him the most. Then he would sit down on the couch and look at it long and hard. As we students wrestled with the process of creating our own pictures, someone asked the teacher, “How do you know when you’re finished with a painting?” He smiled and replied that every so often, as he worked on a piece at home, he would take it off his easel and set it on the mantle above the fireplace in his living room. ![]() When I was in college, I took an oil painting class from an artist whose work I had long admired. As I look for a metaphor to represent the power in living Step Ten, I am reminded again of my life-long interest in oil painting. ![]()
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