Emotional Fidelity to Your Spouse and None Else

In the New Testament book of Matthew chapter 5 verse 28 it says, “That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her in his heart”. Of course we can also paraphrase this and say the same is true for a woman. When people think of fidelity and adultery they generally think of physical intimacy through sex. However, one can also be unfaithful to their spouse emotionally or spiritually. I do not think anyone plans for this to happen, but it kind of sneaks up on them. We need to be very careful and do as the Lord advised, “watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation” (Matthew 26:41).  When we are married we enter into a covenant with our spouse and God. We promise to love our spouse above ourselves and put their interests first. In Doctrine and Covenants 42:22 it says, “Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else”. To love our spouse with all our heart is to not allow anyone or anything have place in our heart. We cannot share our love.

The mistake that happens very often is that we argue with our wife or husband and then find someone else we can trust and talk to openly about our problems. We start to build a relationship with a friend and then it could lead to becoming something more. Some people allow place for someone else other than their spouse in their hearts. This is a huge mistake since it is the first step to breaking our wedding covenant. I have experience my wife feeling more comfortable talking to her male friends on social media about her personal life than she would share with me. This made me feel terrible and when I confronted her about it she got mad and thought I did not want her to have any male friends. It was hard to get her to understand how I felt. I started to get jealous and have hurt feelings toward her. This affected our marriage in a negative way. After going through a rough experience with this my wife and I agreed to not let anyone else into our marriage. We know we need to be able to trust in each other. I am also very careful not to let myself develop any feelings for another woman, nor let anything appear as if there is something happening which is inappropriate. We each need to monitor our feelings towards others and never let anyone take the place of our spouse. If we sense danger we should avoid it rather than think we can resist temptation. Joseph in The Old Testament is a great example of how we should flee from the face of infidelity.