You know, there's a lot of reasons why people
begin viewing pornography.
And there's a lot of different reasons
why they continue to view pornography.
A lot of times the viewing of pornography
is just mere curiosity.
But that curiosity, because it can be very stimulating,
can create further viewing.
Oftentimes, when teenagers are struggling with depression
or anxiety, they'll view pornography
because it does momentarily give them
what we call a dopamine high and it makes them feel better.
And if we're not careful, then we
create what I call a shame-based pornography loop.
They view it because they're trying to feel better.
After they view it, they feel really bad because they
feel like it's wrong.
And so then they want to talk about it.
And then if they're shamed when they talk about it,
then they go back in depression.
And how do they pull out of it?
They go back into viewing.
You know, oftentimes a pornography habit
or any even interest in that is a reflection
of a certain sense of lack of self-esteem
already that needs to be addressed.
And to begin to address some of those underlying challenges
that they're facing--is there peer pressure involved?
You know, did they just stumble upon this?
And ask the questions that will allow
them to describe their experience in a way
that they can feel safe, that they can feel confident
that they are loved and that they can be still respected
for the remarkable individual that they are.
Each one of us has a conflict going on inside.
I like how it's spoken of here in Romans.
And I'm going to read that.
It says, "But I see another law in my members, warring
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members."
To me, that addresses directly what we're talking about here.
We have a natural man inside of us,
that this temptation is real.
And what a better word to use than "war"?
It's a war.
It's in our minds.
We have to fight it and get it out and push it out.
So I really appreciate that Paul declared
this war between our members and our mind or our spirit.
I also like the fact that King Benjamin, I feel,
addresses this in Mosiah chapter 3, in verse 19:
"For the natural man is an enemy to God,
and [he] has been from the fall of Adam, and will be,
forever"--and here's the key--"unless he yields
to the enticings of the Holy [Ghost], and ...
becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord."
So the only way we overcome these temptations
or this war, what the natural man wants,
is by yielding to the enticings of the Spirit.
And that can be a process also.
Every one of us is learning better how
to listen to the Holy Ghost.
But it is a war.
It's real.
And the moment we think that it's otherwise, then
we are allowing ourselves to be that enemy, to be natural,
the natural man.
So I encourage all of you to look at yourself
and say, "Am I yielding to the enticements of the Spirit?
And am I allowing the Atonement of Jesus Christ to purify me?"
And I think we're all aware, if we look around,
that our children are under tremendous pressure.
There are all kinds of pushes for them to be high-achieving
in academics or other areas, perhaps athletics.
Many of them are a little over-involved, perhaps
a lot over-involved in activities outside of the home.
I spoke with one woman who was a single mom with four children
who were involved in so many teams and activities and dance
and music kinds of lessons and so on that she literally
had no time to talk to her children
at home about the gospel, about things like sexuality,
about things like social media.
In fact, she said they eat fast food
in the car on the way to those things.
You know, that's not an ideal situation by any means.
You know, for young people today, the area of sexuality
is much different because it's much more blatant
and it's much more predominant.
There's a lot of research showing
that kids are viewing sexuality more as a self-serving process
than an intimate relationship between two people.
I remember working with a young girl, a young teenager who
had been just watching YouTube videos, and all of a sudden
she was looking at porn.
And she hadn't intended to do that, but it intrigued her.
And that's natural to be intrigued by things
that are so provocative.
So it took her a while to talk to her parents,
but they had started to notice that she was not herself.
So they did start to ask how things were going.
And they eventually were able to have her share her concerns
and her problem that was starting to grow.
And they were able to catch it before it
became a serious addiction.
In today's world, Satan wants to make
everything appear hopeless.
That's one of the things he attacks.
He attacks our self-confidence.
He attacks our being.
He attacks our background, what we like.
And in this difficult process of overcoming pornography,
it's no different.
He wants us all to feel ashamed of it and feel alone.
You're not alone.
Everybody has temptations.
This one is a frequent temptation
that young people face.
And I say "young people" because it's not
a young man or a young woman issue.
They both have this issue.
And we appreciate the fact that Heavenly Father
allows us to have these temptations when we understand
the plan of salvation.