It’s easy to answer. Just think about the efforts that are poured in to teach us to behave in a good way:
[1] Our parents teach us to control ourselves when we are small.
[2] We all have our conscience, which speaks up when we want to do something wrong, or don’t want to do what we are supposed to.
[3] Society sets guidelines when we grow up.
[4] Law restrains us as adults. These work in a restrictive way.
[5] On the positive side, good behaviour is generally rewarded, praised, and opens many doors.
Thus, we have all those chains around our hearts to restrain
what we carry inside, and we still often fail. Thus, our thoughts, desires and
emotions may be kept locked in, but they are not gone.
We need to understand that, Biblically speaking, sinfulness
is our condition at the fundamental level.
This tragic condition manifests in so many ways in our daily life:
[1] As ignorance about the true God and as wilful rejection of the true God.
[2] Not knowing who we are, how precious we are, and for what great responsibilities we are created.
[3] As selfishness and self-centredness.
[4] As foolishness, when we return to same harmful patterns of behaviour again and again.
[5] As misplaced trust, hopes and expectations, when we expect to find fulfilment of our deep longings in the wrong places.
[6] As misplaced loyalties and priorities.
Of course, all of these may also hurt our marriages.
