The Key to Lasting Love: Strategies for Remaining Loyal in Your Relationship and Marriage

 It's fantastic that you desire to stay on the path to purity. Many people in the world do not realize this. But you do, therefore, you are special.

 Having a good and regular prayer life is fundamental. In this day and age, where impurity is the norm and is celebrated, you will need extra super natural help. You can pray for your future spouse, for his/her growth in virtue and your own, for his/her journey to meet you, for his/her purity. In this way, you are not only aware of his/her existence, but you are loving him/her already. This is crucial for you to remain faithful even if you don’t know him/her yet. Think about it, if you are faithful right now, you are training in love, in fidelity. How strong and faithful would you future marriage be?

 Avoid friendships that expose you to temptation. If your pals enjoy drink, drugs, and partying and are vulnerable to impurity, it will be more difficult for you to maintain your purity. You will have many more opportunities for impurity than if you associate with people who share your beliefs and ambitions in life. Have good friendships. Friends that desire the best for you, including your purity.

 Here are some minor and significant efforts you may take to stay loyal and faithful in your relationship.

 1. Be Loyal to Your Boyfriend or Girlfriend first. Many singles live insanely wild lifestyles with several people while expecting to be content and faithful in marriage. Discipline promotes discipline. You will not become a man or woman unless you have practiced self discipline. Faithfulness is a habit that should begin with your dating relationships, because if you can't be a true boyfriend or girlfriend, you're unlikely to be a faithful spouse or wife. Simple.

2. Stay away from pre-marital sexual experiences as much as you can: Nothing justifies cheating, however, some couples cheat because they expect their wives or husbands to be a combination of their ex’s whom they’ve had different sexual escapades with. You see, we cannot be wiser than God. Even from a psychological standpoint, abstinence makes sense. Too many premarital sexual encounters end up in unhealthy comparisons in marriage. You love your wife, but she doesn’t moan like your ex. You love your husband but he does not satisfy you in bed like your ex. He or She doesn’t do this like an ex… and dissatisfaction sets in. A perfect excuse for your infidelity.

3. Avoid friends who are not faithful in their relationships: if you’re a man or woman with noble values and you roll with corrupt men or women, one day you’ll want to get a taste of what they do. Keep close friends who are faithful, pride in it & encourage it. It’s easy to be what you see.

4. Learn to build boundaries: listen, everyone can cheat! If you’re in a highly vulnerable and compromising corner, you will cheat. That’s why some call it a mistake, because it wasn’t intended, but was a result of recklessness and lack of boundaries. Don’t trust yourself too much! Build boundaries with the opposite sex. They can’t reach you at some times, they can’t talk to you about some things… I will assume that Joseph ran away when Potiphar’s wife wanted him to spend some alone time with her because he didn’t trust himself to not fall! He ran; you should run too. Set boundaries like you don’t trust yourself. Cheating in many cases is the end point of a lot of loose boundaries. So, avoid conversations, people, and things that will even put you there. Tighten the screws of your boundaries and be unapologetic about it.

5. Be open to your yourselves about everything. EVERYTHING! It’s easy to be faithful when you’re not hiding anything. When secrecy creeps into a relationship, unfaithfulness is bound to happen, because sin thrives in secrecy. Let your woman/wife or husband/man know everything. It doesn’t have to be big secrets, please. Things as little as how your female work colleague unusually complimented you, How your male Boss at work compliments you whenever you made a new hairstyle or dress in a particular way or how some random girl /boy sent you an innocently mushy message on IG. Sin hates transparency; be transparent!

6. Communicate your needs to your partner. Unmet needs should lead to more communication not jumping out to get them met. The sex isn’t so pleasing? Speak to your wife or husband. They don’t say the things you love to hear. Speak to your wife or husband. Learn together! Always remember what you stand to lose when you cheat. A relationship/marriage that you’ve built for years is not worth ruining with some minutes of pleasure — pleasure your husband or wife can actually give you(for married folks). 

7. If it’s possible, have older faithful couples that you are accountable to—couples you’ve seen walk and thrive in faithfulness. Surround yourself with as many as possible. 

8. Avoid negative marriage content that normalizes infidelity. All the ridiculous TikTok content that demonizes marriage and dissuades people from prioritizing their partners, avoid them. “Men are polygamous”, and those kinds of mindsets, block them. The more you listen to them, the less you value your marriage, and the more likely you are to cheat.

 9. Finally, yield yourself to the Holy Spirit. He kills fleshy desires in us.

 Romans 6:16

 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

 There’s no joy in sin. It’s a flickering sense of respite that vaporizes when your eyes clear. Nothing good has ever come from infidelity, even if you did it with a president’s daughter; infidelity breaks covenantal bonds, and exposes the children involved to a compromised home. Find joy in loving just your wife or husband.