Monday, March 20, 2006

Filters Don't Do Everything

Just because you have an Internet filter on your computer doesn't mean that you'll never see Internet porn again. It gives you a fighting chance by minimizing the likelyhood that you'll stumble across pornography while doing your everyday (read: wholesome) online activities. The problem is when you want to explore the more shadowy corners of the Internet. If you're trying to find porn and you're reasonably clever, you'll probably find it. So my recommendation is that you find an accountability partner. An accountability partner gets a report of your online activities everyday or by some other trigger. The tool I use, NetMop, is a hack-proof filter that has an accountability tool buit in. You can give a special username and password to your accountability partner and they can view your online activity to keep you on the straight and narrow. You can also enter the email address of your accountability partner and when you visit a blocked site, or have an image load from a blocked site, your accountability partner gets an email notifying them that you've accessed a blocked site. Your accountability partner can check your activity to see if it was an innocent mistake or if your were cruising the shadowy site of the Net.

Prayer = Progress

You know that nagging temptation to do something to elieviate the driving impulse of sexual temptation? There is a solution - prayer. I know - I know - who wants to pray at a time like that. The problem is we probably don't want to give up the potential satisfaction of giving in to our compulsion or addiction. So we need to first settle the issue of pleasing God or Self. God wants our freedom more than we do (obviously). Let's consider that for a moment. God wants our best - our peace and self possession. If we truly believe that, it may be a bit easier to allow our temption to be replaced by - or better yet, satisfied by - the intercourse of prayer. I recommend a formal prayer like the Our Father or Hail Mary. While praying, present yourself to God and include your present temptation and urges. Allow God to satisfy your need for comfort by the very act of being in communion with the loving God who loves you more than you love yourself.

I just did this and it worked!