{"id":69340,"date":"2024-08-16T16:16:41","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T21:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=69340"},"modified":"2024-08-16T16:16:41","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T21:16:41","slug":"my-life-is-a-ruin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-life-is-a-ruin\/","title":{"rendered":"My life is a ruin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>My friend, I don&#8217;t know where to begin. I have prayed to the Lord for wisdom. I don&#8217;t know where, but I&#8217;ll just begin.<\/p>\n<p>As a child, I grew up very lonely. I later found out I have autism, though I am high-functioning. As I got older, I had to go to preschool, where I was relentlessly bullied, yet I suffered in silence. This was my story for the rest of school: bullied every day, ignored, and never chosen. Nobody was a friend; I was just alone. It&#8217;s all I know. Every night, I had internal panic attacks, not wanting to go to school, but I kept everything inside, silently crying.<\/p>\n<p>This was bad enough, but a cousin of mine and I discovered porn when I was just 8 or 9 years old. He and I did homosexual things, but we had no intercourse. However, later that year, he raped me in my room, and I was just silent as I always was afraid of what others would say or think. I remember I tried getting him to have intercourse with me again later that month, thinking that It might take the feeling away of dirtiness, but it didn&#8217;t help. I went to high school. His sister and I fooled around playing at being husband and wife when I was 10. We played sexual stuff, but we never did anything until one day, she asked me if I wanted to do the real thing. I am so thankful I didn&#8217;t know how a vagina worked, or I would have had sex with her actual penetration.<\/p>\n<p>I am a full-blown porn addict trying to get free. I have fought for so long. I am so tired. I have taken the step of praying for a wife now that I am 27, and the Lord, I don&#8217;t know why, has shown me how rancid and repulsive a creature I am. I feel so worthless and sometimes think I have no reason to live. No good woman could love me. Just look at me. Addicted to porn, and I am so useless. I could not get free for years. A rape victim and homosexual, I was driven to incest. I cry myself to sleep most nights. I had forgotten all these things for years, and then Jesus opened my eyes.<\/p>\n<p>How foolish of me to pray to the Lord for a wife who loves Him deeply, keeps His commandments deep in her heart, is faithful and loyal and kind, a woman who kept herself pure for the marriage bed and did not throw it all away. Here, I kept my &#8220;purity.&#8221; The Lord was always pulling me from bad situations. Now look at me. I wish for death, but I don&#8217;t want to die. I feel like even if I do marry and my wife had a sexual past, willingly giving herself away, it breaks me sincerely. I want to go to sleep at night, and I don&#8217;t wish to wake up. I don&#8217;t wish to go to work. I want to not feel all of this.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone always rejected me. I was constantly alone. No one wanted to be my friend, nor did anyone ever even reach out to or for me. I hoped that maybe I wouldn&#8217;t be a second-place comer in marriage, but I am not good material for anything. I am worthless. I should have been killed when I was younger. At least I won&#8217;t be living in this hell. The God who found me lost and alone at 17 is the God I can&#8217;t hear any more at 27. Where is He? I need Him, and He is so silent.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>I&#8217;m sorry that you had to experience such a rough childhood. However, there is a choice that you have to make today. Do you let your past rule your life or do you grow from the experiences? &#8220;<em>Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing<\/em>&#8221; (James 1:2-4).<\/p>\n<p>Pornography is a tough sin to conquer, just as other sins that are based on lust. But difficult does not mean impossible. See<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/lies-pornography-tells-men\/\">Lies Pornography Tells Men<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-look-at-pornography\/\">A Look at Pornography<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/not-what-they-told-you-pornography\/\">Not What They Told You &#8211; Pornography<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In regard to your loneliness, I suspect that is part of why you chase pornography. You think it will fix the problem, but it makes it worse. But I also wonder where is your church family? Are you a part of a church and attending services?<\/p>\n<p>What your cousin did was grievously sinful, but that doesn&#8217;t mean it is your sin. I noted that most of these things happened before your teenage years. I suspect that you had not yet started developing and didn&#8217;t really understand what was going on. This sort of abuse tends to &#8220;explode&#8221; when the child does develop and realizes the significance of what had happened. It is hard to process knowing something is wrong, but you have done it. Like many abuse victims, you haven&#8217;t handled it well and spent your adult years blaming yourself for what others had done.<\/p>\n<p>You are not a homosexual. You had committed a homosexual sin. You were a victim of homosexual rape. But that doesn&#8217;t mean you are the sin. Your cousin tried to get you to commit fornication, but that doesn&#8217;t mean you are tainted for life. Christianity is about leaving the sinful world and becoming spiritually minded. &#8220;<em>Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God<\/em>&#8221; (I Corinthians 6:11).<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus<\/em>&#8221; (Philippians 3:13-14).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: My friend, I don&#8217;t know where to begin. I have prayed to the Lord for wisdom. I don&#8217;t know where, but I&#8217;ll just begin. As a child, I grew up very lonely. I later found out I have autism, though I am high-functioning. As I got older, I had to go to preschool, where&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[397,35,205,226],"class_list":["post-69340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-depression","tag-homosexuality","tag-lewdness","tag-pornography"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":94845,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/prejudice-crucified-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":69340,"position":0},"title":"Prejudice Crucified Jesus","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 30, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton When we own our part in the sins that crucified Jesus, we come to see that guilt can be the beginning of the transformation we really need. First, we see that the very sins that led to Jesus being crucified were those of ourselves. Those who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24949,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-do-you-draw-the-line\/","url_meta":{"origin":69340,"position":1},"title":"Where do you draw the line?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Well, I chatted with a friend who is a lesbian. She was drunk, so I'm not sure if what I said really impacted her or not. Anyway, I let go of my fears, told her that she could be forgiven for anything if only she would change, and told\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8372,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-convince-an-atheist-to-believe-in-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":69340,"position":2},"title":"How do I convince an atheist to believe in the Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How do I convince my friend to believe in the Bible, as well as God?\u00a0 My friend doesn't believe in God, Heaven, the devil, anything that the Bible teaches.\u00a0 This friend told me that, to her, the Bible is complete fiction.\u00a0 I know that I cannot even begin to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16763,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-bible-teach-that-you-dont-have-to-congregate-to-go-to-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":69340,"position":3},"title":"Does the Bible teach that you don&#8217;t have to congregate to go to heaven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A good friend and fellow sister in Christ called last night to tell me about a conversation she'd had with a few co-workers. One guy said that, although he didn't know where, he knew the Bible said you 'don't have to congregate to go to heaven.' A woman said\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":79698,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-only-suspect-that-my-ex-husband-committed-adultery\/","url_meta":{"origin":69340,"position":4},"title":"I only suspect that my ex-husband committed adultery","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 22, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I married this guy 5 years ago. We both came from Christian homes, but neither of us had a real relationship with God. At first, I didn't want to marry him. We just started dating, and we already had intimacy, but he told me that it was illegal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28632,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-my-friend-leave-her-drug-abusing-husband\/","url_meta":{"origin":69340,"position":5},"title":"Should my friend leave her drug-abusing husband?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was Googling information on divorce for my best friend, and I came across this site with all of the women getting advice so I figured I would try to explain the situation as best as I can without leaving important information out. My friend got pregnant when we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}