Struggles

I have a friend of mine who brought up an interesting dilemma that I'm sure many people face.

She has recently become single again after a few years of marriage. She has been reluctant to get back into the church due to the issue of sex outside of marriage. It's not that she knows she won't be accepted into a church flaws and all, but it's her overriding guilt keeping her from going.

Having been married myself, I know what a struggle this can be, which is probably why we aren't supposed to be getting divorced in the first place. Well, part of the reason... This is a difficult issue. You get married and enjoy the benefits of it and then it's taken from you while at a young age. The Scriptures tell us that we aren't to remarry, either. In today's day and age the marriage partner doesn't have to have a reason for the divorce other than "irreconcilable differences". I know my marriage was taken from me this way and I didn't have one thing I could do about it. The decision was not mine as I don't believe in that option.

How do you go back to being celibate again after enjoying the benefits of marriage? If you aren't allowed to remarry and you're still young, what are you to do? I know God loves us anyway, but He hates the sin and who wants to be in that position to live in sin whether you remarry or not? If you remarry, you are committing adultery and the same for having sex outside of marriage.

What a conundrum, eh?

Now, I wasn't a virgin when I got married and I haven't been exactly faithful to my marriage vows since the divorce. It's hard to put that genie back in the bottle. It's probably the only regret I have in life that I didn't wait until I was married. It has been over a year, though, and it's been a difficult year.

You can't explain things away or justify actions. You have to be honest with yourself and do your best. God loves us in spite of our flaws. Knowing that doesn't make anything easier, but knowing God does make it harder since you are aware of right and wrong. Is this how Adam and Eve felt once they knew the difference?