By Lavern Nissley, Tuesday@10:10 blog post

Today I'd like to refer you to an excellent post by Mike McManus in his April 7 Ethics and Religion column. He refers to the recent Time cover story entitled Porn: Why Young Men Who Grew Up With Internet Porn Are Advocates Of Turning It Off.

As a man who used to seek out porn myself, I am fully behind the many efforts to make it as inaccessible as possible. It is truly addictive and destructive to healthy relationships.

Please take about 5 minutes to READ THE POST by Mike McManus. I personally learned of porn use affects I had never heard of before. But I also resonated with the hope and personal freedom when porn is no longer an active part of one's life.

Whether or not you are currently an active porn user, you will benefit from this post. I've chosen to do what I can so that others can experience freedom from one of the most insidious imprisonments ever devised.

If you have another 3 minutes, take a look at the video clip at right that I did several years ago on Getting Unstuck from Multimedia Impurity.

​Will you join me in the battle?

By Lavern Nissley, Tuesday@10:10 blog post

I've read hundreds of Facebook posts and shares on marriage. "3 steps" of this, "4 tips" on that, "5 ways" to improve your sex life. Many are excellent and insightful, but today I'd like for you to see one of my all time favorites.

It was posted September 15, 2015 by Jeff Cook, our daughter-in-law's father, a former Cedarville University professor and currently working with CrossPurpose Center for Urban Leadership in Denver, Colorado.

Someone asked me recently in an interview how we have balanced marriage/family life and ministry over the years. This was what I told them:

Early in our first church-planting ministry my wife sat me down, looked me in the eye and told me in no uncertain terms, “Jeff, you have to decide if you are married to me or to that church.”

I tried, of course, to bob and weave and make her feel guilty for being an obstacle to me serving God and people. The fact was that I was way overcommitted in ministry, and I was leaving my family in the dust. It was a shot across the bow, and I knew then I needed some boundaries. I listened. She has been the best barometer for how I am balancing those priorities for the past forty years. It’s never easy, and you never are totally “balanced.” But you work at it, and listen to people who love you.

“Take heed to yourselves, and to the flock over which the Lord has made you overseers.” (Paul to the Ephesian elders, Acts 20.)

If you don’t take care of yourselves first, you will have no ministry.

This wisdom doesn't apply just to ministry leaders. It applies to anyone tempted to make an outside allegiance or affection more important than the marriage. It could be work, school, sports, coffee club, kids, parents, a home improvement project--all good, but not to become a higher priority than the marriage.

For the record, "Ronda Nissley, I'm married fully to you and no other entity!"

Thank you, Jeff and Inge, for this reminder!

Jeff and Inge Cook, Denver, Colorado