TEMPTATION: How to Guard Your Marriage Against Temptation | Love By Faith with Kyle & Selina Almodovar #088

In our final episode of the Temptations series, we talk about how to guard our marriage against temptation. We unpack how temptation seeds itself in thoughts and desires, grows through secrecy and isolation, and fractures trust when left in the dark. We offer practical ways to confess early, involve church community, use Scripture as sword and shield, and remember the real enemy isn’t your spouse.

• guarding mind and heart from early temptation
• moving from look to secret and how it escalates
• revenge, temptation, and the boomerang harm
• shame and pride as engines of secrecy
• confessing early and inviting accountability
• using sword and shield verses to fight back
• church community as protection against isolation
• choosing obedience to Christ over reflexive anger
• reframing covenant marriage and shared purpose
• practical steps to rebuild trust and unity

📖 Every Man's Battle: Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time*

For those living in the US, we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving! And for everyone everywhere, we are thankful and blessed that you decided to share your time and hearts with us. Love By Faith, y'all!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome, Thanksgiving Banter, Series Finale
• 2:20 Framing The Temptation Series Themes
• 3:10 Mind Vs Heart: Where Temptation Starts
• 5:00 From Look To Secret: The Slippery Path
• 6:20 Revenge Temptation And Boomerang Pain
• 7:40 You Can’t Win Alone: Spouse And Church
• 9:10 Shame, Pride, And Bringing Sin To Light
• 11:00 Conditional Love, Real Hurt, And The Glue
• 13:00 Obedience To Christ Over Reflex Anger
• 15:00 Confess Early: Small Temptations Strategy
• 16:20 Retail Therapy, Contentment, And Honesty
• 17:40 Sword And Shield Verses For Battle
• 18:50 Partnered Prayer And Accountability
• 19:40 Support Appeal: Playbook And Donations
• 21:00 Remember The Real Enemy, Not Your Spouse
• 23:00 God’s Power In Covenant Marriage
• 25:00 Church Community As Anti-Isolation
• 26:20 Help Offer, Coaching, And Resources
• 27:40 Closing Prayer And Listener CTAs
• 29:00 Lighthearted Thanksgiving This-Or-That

Transcript

Kyle Almodovar: 0:00

How to guard our marriages against temptation.

Selina Almodovar: 0:02

I'm choosing to do it just to get back at you.

Kyle Almodovar: 0:05

But how do we get past that? I guess you'd call it a fear that they're gonna respond in such a negative way that it's just gonna make life worse.

Selina Almodovar: 0:11

The enemy already has a bigger grasp on your marriage than you think. We're not perfect people. By any means. But by trusting in God, we learned what it takes to build a friendship, a relationship, and marriage that has stood the test of time. With a keeping it real style, we're gonna talk to you about everything that we've been through, are going through, and have overcome all by learning how to lean on God and each other in order to help you learn how to love by faith. Thanksgiving weekend.

Kyle Almodovar: 1:00

All the turkey all the stuffing, all the mac and cheese, all the nap time. None of the football. It's so hard to be a Browns fan.

Selina Almodovar: 1:15

I'm sorry.

Kyle Almodovar: 1:16

Change the subject, please.

Selina Almodovar: 1:17

I I I brought up Thanksgiving. You you brought up your trauma.

Kyle Almodovar: 1:23

I went through all the layers of Thanksgiving in my head.

Selina Almodovar: 1:26

What about um you didn't talk about desserts or family or like gratitude, thankfulness?

Kyle Almodovar: 1:33

Oh Lord.

Selina Almodovar: 1:34

All those things. Cranberry sauce, uh the Macy's Day parade.

Kyle Almodovar: 1:38

Playing football with my buddy.

Selina Almodovar: 1:40

You do f yeah, you do football. The church does football every morning with the guys. My family.

Kyle Almodovar: 1:45

I remember I miss the days when my parents were alive and we would do big like 12, 16 person meals at the table. That was cool, kinda.

Selina Almodovar: 1:55

Kinda? It was cool. It was shout out to the kind of family.

Kyle Almodovar: 1:59

It was always hard.

Selina Almodovar: 2:00

Like it's always hard when you have that many people together. Like, can you imagine Jesus and his disciples everywhere he went? Like everywhere arguing again. So we've been over this. Just pass the turkey.

Kyle Almodovar: 2:15

That's funny, man. Selena, that's funny. Welcome to Love by Faith.

Selina Almodovar: 2:21

How are you guys?

Kyle Almodovar: 2:22

We're in November. We're in the temptation series.

Selina Almodovar: 2:24

This is the last episode of the series.

Kyle Almodovar: 2:27

You ready? Yeah. Black Friday sales. I didn't talk about that. We're past sorry. Sorry. Keep it going, Kyle. Let's stay focused.

Selina Almodovar: 2:34

For those of you guys who have been tuning in all month long, thank you for participating. And hopefully you've gotten some good stuff out of our temptation series. Make sure you catch our free resource that is in our couples playbook regarding this series. It's called Faithful Eyes, Faithful Hearts, a Couple's Guide for Overcoming Temptation. If you're new here, hey, you got a free gift? And welcome to the Temptation Series where we are here talking to you guys about what couples are tempted to do, and we are steering them back towards each other and to God. And today is our last episode of this series. So, Kyle, what are we talking about?

Kyle Almodovar: 3:12

We're talking about how to guard our marriages against temptation.

Selina Almodovar: 3:17

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 3:18

I was thinking about this episode and thinking about how do we guard our marriages, and then I was thinking through all of the the previous three episodes.

Selina Almodovar: 3:26

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 3:26

And how it all plays together.

Selina Almodovar: 3:28

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 3:28

Right?

Selina Almodovar: 3:29

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 3:29

So we have to guard our marriages from secrets. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And so where do secrets happen? Secrets happen mentally. So it's secrets.

Selina Almodovar: 3:39

Of the heart?

Kyle Almodovar: 3:40

It starts with your mind.

Selina Almodovar: 3:42

It starts with the heart.

Kyle Almodovar: 3:44

Starts with the heart.

Selina Almodovar: 3:45

I think so. Yeah.

Kyle Almodovar: 3:46

Now the secrets secrets are in the heart.

Selina Almodovar: 3:49

I think everything flows from the heart in that Bible.

Kyle Almodovar: 3:53

Out of your mouth, the heart overflows. That's in the Bible.

Selina Almodovar: 3:56

Yeah, but the the like there's this there's the part of scripture where he's like, if you thought about it in your heart to like you you don't have to commit murder, but if you thought about it from your heart, you might have already committed murder.

Kyle Almodovar: 4:10

Okay. There you go. It starts in the heart.

Selina Almodovar: 4:12

Did that mess up your whole thing?

Kyle Almodovar: 4:14

No, it's fine. I mean, I was gonna say to guard your heart eventually.

Selina Almodovar: 4:16

I was gonna say, it's interesting though, because there are temptations that come from the heart for the longing to be desired and the longing to be this and that and whatever. But then you also, like you said, you have thoughts in your head. So are they different? Are they the same? Do they have the same origin? I don't know. It's interesting now that you bring it up.

Kyle Almodovar: 4:37

Yeah. And and then how do we how do we attack it? That's where we have to really go. Because once the sin, because the thought of the sin is not necessarily the sin, but once it takes root and manifests itself into your action, that's when the sin is out. That's when the temptation is past temptation and is into action.

Selina Almodovar: 4:54

And the sin becomes death, and and that's why I started with protecting your mind. Yeah.

Kyle Almodovar: 4:59

Because so many times battling temptation, it starts in the mind.

Selina Almodovar: 5:03

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 5:03

And we have to fight it and fight it, and it's eventually it takes root and gets into the heart, and where it's just like, this is shaded or jaded my heart in a way.

Selina Almodovar: 5:13

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 5:14

You know? How about you?

Selina Almodovar: 5:15

Well, we talked about a lot of different kinds of temptation. You know, we we talked about the temptation to look away.

Kyle Almodovar: 5:20

Right.

Selina Almodovar: 5:21

And looking away was kind of the surface base of temptation. You know, it starts with the look, it starts with texting one person, it starts with looking at one website, it starts with scrolling a little too long in the in the bathroom time. It's it's you know, it starts with one thought, one feeling, yeah, and then it continues to grow. We talked about the secrets, which was a really deeper, heavy thing, because now you're actually taking action and you're keeping it in the dark, you know, much like shame, much like sin. We keep it in that dark so it could grow and manifest in there in that space that nobody can see. And we also talked about skipping church, you know, isolating yourself so that what you're doing is validated, so that what you're doing doesn't get corrected, so that what you're doing doesn't get stopped by an accountability that could be found in a church with a church group and church friends and family.

Kyle Almodovar: 6:17

Yeah.

Selina Almodovar: 6:18

And so all of it, like you said, there's always a seed, there's always a root to it. One of the things that we did not talk about that I was thinking about was sometimes people will choose to act on their temptations, not out of uh a longing or a desire, but out of anger, like a tit for tat, where it's like you angered me, so I am gonna act on this temptation as a way to get back at you.

Kyle Almodovar: 6:48

Revenge.

Selina Almodovar: 6:49

Yes, like, or you offended me, so I am gonna do this thing. Yeah, I am gonna entertain it. I'm choosing to do it just to get back at you, just so that the ripples of what my actions do can hurt you. And it's kind of like a boomerang effect because you think that you're hurting other people, you think that through your actions by feeding into temptations is going to not affect you, it's gonna affect the other person. And in reality, like you get it ten times worse because you're still at the center of this problem, and you're still at the center of this thing that is now getting fed, and it's be growing into a bigger monster within you.

Kyle Almodovar: 7:34

I think one of the other faults that we get into with temptation and giving into sin and getting past it and defeating the temptation, which is really the goal of the series, is to figure out how to defeat the temptation. Yes, is that we think we can do it on our own.

Selina Almodovar: 7:47

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 7:48

And not just on our own, like without the church or without accountability partners, but without our spouse.

Selina Almodovar: 7:52

Yeah.

Kyle Almodovar: 7:53

Without sharing our struggles with each other, and especially as men, like I want to figure out how to fix it and then tell you that I fixed it.

Selina Almodovar: 8:00

Yeah.

Kyle Almodovar: 8:01

Before I figure out, like, hey hun, I'm I need help fixing this.

Selina Almodovar: 8:05

Yeah.

Kyle Almodovar: 8:05

Right? Like, think about the think about all the times we we run like organization projects where we're like, we're gonna get this organized, we're gonna clean up the garage, we're gonna clean up the basement. Yeah, all right, I'm gonna get started. Yeah, I'll see you when you're done with whatever you're doing.

Selina Almodovar: 8:19

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 8:19

And then we get down there, and I'm or I say down there because I think of our basement. That's always a spot that needs cleaned up all the time, yes. As we broadcast from our basement studio that's in decent shape. We get down there and I start cleaning and I start doing stuff, and then you come down, or I start doing it without you before. Oh yeah, and you're like, Kyle, stop.

Selina Almodovar: 8:41

What is this?

Kyle Almodovar: 8:42

What are you doing?

Selina Almodovar: 8:42

You're making it worse.

Kyle Almodovar: 8:44

And how much better would it have gone? Would it have been organized? Would it have been situated had we done it together?

Selina Almodovar: 8:50

Yes, right?

Kyle Almodovar: 8:51

Had we sat down, took inventory, yes, figured out what our trouble areas are, figured out where we're gonna start, yes, and then knock it out from there.

Selina Almodovar: 9:01

Yes, yes. And again, you know, you you have to think about temptation as this thing that the enemy uses. It's so crazy to me because I I am I'm very passionate in trying to understand the spiritual sense of things, you know, like there is a a good and evil spiritually at all times and all things. And when people look at temptation and they think that they could fix it on themselves and they think that they can get over it, or they think that they can entertain it because they're strong enough to just get to that line without crossing over, they think they have that. Like, yeah, to me, I'm looking at it from a spiritual perspective like, dude, you're you're toying with pride. You're toying with pride. And then when you do cross over, because you're not strong enough to do it, because God never puts you in a situation that you can handle on your own, or else he would have never came down so that he could be with us at all times. Let's go, right? So you think you can do it, and then you cross that border and you get into that temptation and you you let the temptation overcome you, and then you're now standing in a pool of shame. And so shame is that one thing that keeps the secrets in the dark. And there's so many people out there who are struggling with shame in their marriage and in their accountability groups and and with pride. It's like shame and pride are going hand in hand because they are so fearful of the shame. If it were to come out and be exposed, what people will think of them, what people whom they love will think of them, what people whom they look up to will think of them. Yeah, and so they keep it bottled up and they keep it behind. But then, like I said, the more you keep that in this darkness, the darkness continues to get fed and grows. And you cannot overcome that without a spiritual goodness in your world, without letting God's light expose what's in the darkness, without that humility of God's grace, right? Saying, I am a broken person. I did this, like I'm not ashamed to let you know that I fell because I'm human, and the only person who could not have been tempted and who could have walked away from temptation is Jesus Christ, right? He was the only one who went into the wilderness and got out of it without sinning, without stumbling. He was the only one, and so for us as humans, how could we possibly think that we can do it without him?

Kyle Almodovar: 11:38

Right. The result of sin is death, right? Yeah, and that death is not a literal, not always the literal physical boom, you're dead. Right? The the death is could be the death of your personality, the death of your confidence, the depth, the death of your connection with your partner, oh yeah, the death of your character, of who you want to be, the death of your self-image.

Selina Almodovar: 12:02

Yeah.

Kyle Almodovar: 12:03

And so guarding ourselves against these different deaths is gonna be a huge step in our spiritual growth and our spiritual maturity in our relationship connection.

Selina Almodovar: 12:11

Yes. So when it comes to relationships, when it comes to marriages, for people who are battling and struggling with temptation, yeah, it goes back to that. I am ashamed of the person that I am becoming through this by feeding into this temptation. I don't want to bring my spouse into it, or I she's the one that put me in this situation, or she um offended me, or he doesn't listen to me, so I don't respect him. So therefore I'm gonna do this my own. Like all of these things are brewing and brewing and brewing. All of it can be, I believe, exposed if we were just honest and if we were just transparent, not just about the situation, but about our own weaknesses. The Bible tells us that when we are weak, Christ is made strong through that weakness. Yes, because that gives him the opportunity to come fully into that situation and show himself as God, as supreme, as the power that can overcome whatever it is that we are battling with, even though we've tried 99 different ways to not look at that website or to not spend that money that we don't have. God is the one who can give you the wisdom and the discernment and the strength to get through it, right?

Kyle Almodovar: 13:34

Amen.

Selina Almodovar: 13:35

But the only way that you can do that together is by sharing what you're going through with the safety of ensuring that your spouse is going to love you no less.

Kyle Almodovar: 13:48

Amen.

Selina Almodovar: 13:49

But if you have conditions in your love, that leads to that fear, that leads to that shame, that leads to the secrets, at least all the things.

Kyle Almodovar: 13:58

Man, I want to dig into that.

Selina Almodovar: 14:00

Hey everyone, we hope that you're enjoying this episode. And right now, we want to just take a small minute to introduce to you the latest thing that we created to help you elevate your relationship and take it to the next level. It's called the Love by Faith playbook.

Kyle Almodovar: 14:16

Every good coach knows they have to have winning plays. We went through our foundation series and we pulled out some of the best winning plays and created strategies for you guys. Plays like how to be better financially, how to do ministry together, how to be better romantically, how to be better family life. We went through all these different areas from the foundation series and put it together in a playbook.

Selina Almodovar: 14:36

So grab your Love by Faith playbook today. You can use the link in the description below, enter it. And the good news about this is that it is a living document. So you download it one time, and every single month, we are gonna be updating this document to give you fresh new plays to help you and your partner love by faith and create a winning season. Go ahead and get your love by faith playbook now, and let's get back into this episode.

Kyle Almodovar: 15:07

What I want to dig into is that you said about the conditional love or the conditional response. And that is that is huge in your marriage connection and sharing these hard temptations and sharing these hard failures.

Selina Almodovar: 15:21

Yeah.

Kyle Almodovar: 15:22

Is that how you respond? How I think back to the episode where you said when my reflex reflexes your reflex, well, those reflexes could be very negative or very harsh or very critical to make me say, I I can't share this. Right. Because then I'm gonna have to go through this triple hardship.

Selina Almodovar: 15:42

Right.

Kyle Almodovar: 15:43

And so how do we how do we get past that? How do we get past that not judgment, but that very human, very human response to say, hold up, why are you doing this and what's the matter with you? And and you know, your sin has caused me to be angry, your sin has caused me to withdraw from you.

Selina Almodovar: 16:00

Yeah, yeah.

Kyle Almodovar: 16:02

But how do we get past that? I guess you'd call it a fear, yeah, that they're gonna respond in such a negative way that it's just gonna make life worse, and let's just bury this sin.

Selina Almodovar: 16:11

Yeah.

Kyle Almodovar: 16:11

How do we get past that?

Selina Almodovar: 16:12

So I don't believe I have the exact answers and the precise answers. I will say this though, you are right in the fact that even though we are called to love unconditionally, we as humans can never love unconditionally. Because if I did a if I cheated on you after 30 years of marriage, you would probably walk away. You'd, you know, maybe you might deal with that. You know what I'm saying? But like if if something were to happen that was just like so detrimental to our marriage, you might conditionally walk away because your trust is broken and your your love is broken, your belief and your expectations of what you thought your love in that marriage would be is broken because that's what humans do. We break things, we break things. We've been doing it since childhood. We break things, right? And so I think to answer your question, Kyle, is the only way that things could not get broken or the things things will get broken, but the only way that things could get mended, right? We have to expect that in a broken world, as broken people coming together, things are going to break. But the only way that we can mend them is by drawing back to Jesus and by going back to Christ and having the Holy Spirit within both of us minister to us on how to mend it until he comes back. You know, all we can do is have glue until it's we're made whole again. And so we have to constantly seek the glue to keep our relationship together. We have to find the glue that's gonna help us forgive, bite our tongue and forgive. There have been moments in our marriage where I had to wrestle with my anger and with my judgment and with my injustice because I was righteously angry that things were not fair and this is the way that it went, and I had to swallow my pride and myself to be like, God wants me to get over myself and forgive. And my response was like, heck no. And the Lord was like, Do you love me? Okay, it has to go like please hear me when I say this. You have to not think about your spouse, you have to not think about yourself in these situations when temptation is high, when sin is done, when brokenness is had, you cannot think about you or your spouse in this situation. You have to think about Christ. Do you love him enough to follow him? Right. Do you love Christ enough to be obedient to Christ? Christ is calling you to forgive. Christ is calling you to love. Christ is love, is calling you to be humble. Christ is calling you to serve your spouse.

Kyle Almodovar: 19:08

Right.

Selina Almodovar: 19:09

Christ is calling you to sacrifice the way that he sacrificed for the church if you're a husband.

Kyle Almodovar: 19:14

Yes.

Selina Almodovar: 19:14

Christ is calling you to submit to Christ the way as a wife, the way he had to submit to the father. Okay? Do you love him more than anything else that is happening in the messy life that you have created through that temptation? And if the answer is yes, then I believe you will find the glue that will help you. You will find the wisdom, you will find the help, you will find the aid, you will find the opportunities to help you get through whatever it is that that temptation has brought you into.

Kyle Almodovar: 19:46

Amen. Wow. Wow, that's a good, great take on that. I would say for for husbands wise to defeat the temptation and to defeat the the sin getting deeper is to start when the sin is small.

Selina Almodovar: 20:00

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 20:00

Before the sin takes root. When it gets to that thought, go to the go to to confess then.

Selina Almodovar: 20:05

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 20:05

Like, hey, you know, I was feeling tempted to this little step. Yes. Right. As opposed to having to come back and confess that you crossed a huge line later, right? So before it takes root or gets too deep. Like I love to shop. I love this just to just get stuff. He loves to shop. I like he is the shopper. I like getting out there and enjoying some retail therapy.

Selina Almodovar: 20:25

I don't shop.

Kyle Almodovar: 20:26

And one of my challenges is that I'll have all these online carts just kind of overflowing with stuff.

Selina Almodovar: 20:32

Yeah.

Kyle Almodovar: 20:32

That I I can't afford in the moment or that I can't buy right now.

Selina Almodovar: 20:35

Right.

Kyle Almodovar: 20:36

And it it's a dream to save up and buy these things eventually.

Selina Almodovar: 20:40

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 20:40

But at the same time, you know, I've confessed and talked to you many times about it being unhealthy, about it being covetous and being like just getting too much into like things. Things. Yeah. And not enough into the spiritual side and not and just distracting me from getting into the word or getting into a time of prayer. Because instead of using those times for growth, I use them for scrolling and different kind of doom scrolling, but like a shopping doom scrolling. Yeah. Per se. And it's it's just one of those things that I always come to you. I'm like, hey, I gotta empty this cart out. Like, here I'm I'm gonna do this and show you that. Or it'll be, you know, I gotta stop looking at this. I remember you yelling at me. We had we had just bought our house.

Selina Almodovar: 21:21

Okay.

Kyle Almodovar: 21:21

Like this one, yeah, our house. And we were in there and we were happy. Love it. And I was still looking at houses on on Realtor.com app. And I'm like, and she's like, why are you doing this?

Selina Almodovar: 21:32

Yeah.

Kyle Almodovar: 21:32

Love the house that God gave you.

Selina Almodovar: 21:34

Come on.

Kyle Almodovar: 21:34

Love the house that you are are working towards.

Selina Almodovar: 21:37

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 21:37

And it is such a good, such a good vision of how to defeat the sin is to share. Or if you're if you catch your partner, like do it in love. Like encourage them. Take it back to God. Like you said, take it back to God that hey, love what God has given you right now. Love where God has you right now. Defeat that temptation. I want to go another route here.

Selina Almodovar: 21:58

Okay.

Kyle Almodovar: 21:58

In that the best advice I ever received on defeating temptation came from the book Every Man's Battle.

Selina Almodovar: 22:04

Okay.

Kyle Almodovar: 22:04

And in Every Man's Battle, one of their big takeaways is to have your sword verse and your shield verse.

Selina Almodovar: 22:09

Okay.

Kyle Almodovar: 22:10

And it's a verse you memorize to help you defeat the temptation.

Selina Almodovar: 22:12

That's good.

Kyle Almodovar: 22:13

In different areas. So in every man's battle, they have the sword verse and the shield verse, right? And for each kind of sin you think of that you're dealing with, you have your sword verse and your shield verse. The sword verse is one where you're going to attack the sin and use that verse to stop and knock down the attack of the enemy, right? With with offensively. And talking about the promise that God has given you. And talk about the way that the Lord has set you free from this. And the shield verse is one where you're going to defend. And the the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And stop that. And put the put the wall up against it.

Selina Almodovar: 22:48

Yeah. You shall not pass.

Kyle Almodovar: 22:50

Right. And and those that sword and shield verse for different sins will help you, A, memorize scripture, and B, know how to win the battle.

Selina Almodovar: 22:58

Amen.

Kyle Almodovar: 22:59

Right? And with your accountability partner, who's hopefully your spouse in some sort of way. With your accountability partner, who is hopefully in some capacity your partner.

Selina Almodovar: 23:08

Hopefully, yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 23:09

You can overcome together and stand in battle together.

Selina Almodovar: 23:12

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 23:13

And she can know how to pray for you, and he can know how to pray for you.

Selina Almodovar: 23:15

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 23:16

And that's how you overcome temptation in your marriage.

Selina Almodovar: 23:19

What's up, love by faith family? We want to say thank you so much for your support in watching and engaging in every single episode that we have put out thus far. We could not have made it this far without you.

Kyle Almodovar: 23:30

That's right. And we want to grow more. We want to create new resources. We want to increase our reach and we want to provide more for you guys. But the only way to make that happen is for you to come alongside and partner with us to sow a seed into this ministry to help it grow.

Selina Almodovar: 23:45

Because at the end of the day, it's not about getting new equipment or putting out new resources. It's about expanding the kingdom. It's about creating godly marriages. And we can do that if you partner alongside us with your financial support. There's a link below that you can click on. You can contribute one time or you can partner with us on a monthly basis and help us sow a seed so that love by faith can continue to grow and reach the masses.

Kyle Almodovar: 24:12

If you want to see this ministry grow, follow the link below and thank you. We thank you for giving and for being just part of this journey with us.

Selina Almodovar: 24:21

So that together we can love by faith.

Kyle Almodovar: 24:24

Love by faith, y'all. That's not a joke. Love by faith, y'all is not a joke.

Selina Almodovar: 24:33

That's not our tagline.

Kyle Almodovar: 24:34

It's a catchphrase.

Selina Almodovar: 24:36

Can you please just use the link and click below and we would be grateful. In Jesus' name. Amen. So there's this scene in the Hunger Games. Um, for anybody who's watched it, I think it's the uh second one, catching fire. I think that's the name of the movie, the second part. And this is the um the part of the movie where they start to form allies and they keep her out of the dark, but they're secretly plotting to like overtake the capital. And their biggest phrase to help them stay focused on the mission was remember who the real enemy is.

Kyle Almodovar: 25:15

Okay.

Selina Almodovar: 25:15

Okay. And it got to the point where Katniss, the main character, she started to question, you know, who can she trust? Because they're all acting funny and weird. And her biggest, like at the end of the movie, she just thought, like, my partner Pita is the only one I can trust at this point. And now they took him away, so I don't trust nobody. But then they threw it in her face, like, remember who the real enemy is, right? And it it brought her back to her senses of like, I'm gonna take my emotions out of this, I'm gonna take what I was tempted to do because I was tempted to to who whoop a can of butt cracking on you. You know, but I instead I just remembered it's not you I'm fighting, it's the capital. And so she she gets on board with the with the plan and and things happen. And it just reminds me of, you know, when you go into a marriage, remember who the real enemy is. Right, it's not your spouse. No, you made a vow. I don't know why people think that making vows and making covenants is something that you could just willy-nilly do. Like you are doing, you are making a covenant and a vow, not just with a person that you love at the time, right? Who looks good in the moment, right? You're making a covenant and a vow with the God, Most High, the King of Kings, the Lord of the Lord. You are making a covenant with him that you are vowing to become one with this person to open opportunities of new callings and new gifts and new ministries and new legacies and new things with this person. You are making a vow to be used by God for God's glory with this person because you are making a covenant of marriage.

Kyle Almodovar: 26:50

Yeah, right.

Selina Almodovar: 26:50

And so with it's three-sided, it's a triangle. It's it's a triangle, it's a cross because of the the the vertical covenant and the lateral covenant. Oh, there you go. Like that one. And so, with that, we have to remember who the real enemy is. And when temptation comes in and your partner is struggling with that, you have to go back to who the real enemy is. The enemy is not your partner. Yeah, you guys can't turn against each other. Yeah, you guys can't go back to what the world is telling you not to trust them or not to respect them or not to honor them or not to be one-sided with them, and it's not you versus him. It's how are we going to overcome this?

Kyle Almodovar: 27:31

Yes.

Selina Almodovar: 27:31

And if you're not gonna be honest and transparent and open with your partner, and you feel like you can't do that, then the enemy already has a bigger grasp on your marriage than you think, and you're in deep waters. It doesn't mean that you're gonna sink and it doesn't mean that your marriage has to fail. It just reminds you refocus on who the real enemy is and call on the bigger source to help you bring it back out of those deep waters.

Kyle Almodovar: 28:00

Yeah.

Selina Almodovar: 28:00

And if your husband or if your wife is struggling with that temptation, then you have to really get into your prayer closet and you really have to call on God to help you with this. You have to call on your accountability people and help you with this. You have to bring people in, and more than anything, you have to approach your partner with love, the same love that you vow to love him with and vow to love her with. And you have to have faith. A lot of people are playing God real small in their marriage. Oh, a lot of people are playing God real small. They're they're really looking at God like He's just a deli marketer, and He just you grab a ticket and you you make your order and you get your deli package.

Kyle Almodovar: 28:41

You get your half pound of turkey and keep it moving.

Selina Almodovar: 28:44

And you think that that's all that God is. And God is so much bigger, guys, in your life, and he should be bigger in your if you bel if you're listening to this podcast because you believe in God, because you call yourself a Christian and you believe that God should be at the center of your marriage, then please do not undermine his power, do not undermine his love, and do not undermine what he can do in your marriage to you as individuals and to each other as a unit. Okay, so when there is temptation and it is creeping and it's knocking, please redirect your sights and your beliefs. Remember who the real enemy is and remember who already defeated that person.

Kyle Almodovar: 29:23

Let's go, let's go.

Selina Almodovar: 29:24

Okay, yeah. Because we are gonna struggle. We are all going to be tempted. Jesus was tempted. What makes us think that we're not?

Kyle Almodovar: 29:33

That's right. We're there's nothing that's gonna stop us from being tempted except for us using our faith to defeat it. Except for us using our faith to defeat it. The last thought I wanted to share on this is we had our episode where we talked about tempted to skip church.

Selina Almodovar: 29:46

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 29:46

And and you know, I think a lot of we put a lot of thought into how we wanted to roll out this temptation series.

Selina Almodovar: 29:53

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 29:53

And we made sure to keep tempted to skip church in. Yes, because it is such a huge part in overcoming temptation. Is being part of the church because of that connection with people, that village.

Selina Almodovar: 30:04

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 30:04

It takes a village to raise a child, right? Well, it takes a village to raise raise a child forever. Yes. We are learning from people in our church. We are learning from older people in our church, from younger people in our church. We are connected with men and women in our church who are helping us defeat temptation every day, who are working with us, who are standing arm in arm, who are praying for us. And so don't underestimate the power that the church has in working together and leaning on each other and praying and being able to defeat temptation.

Selina Almodovar: 30:32

If you guys have any other stories, questions, concerns, matters that you would like to share regarding temptation, be sure to send us a note or email us info at lovebyfaith ministries.com. You can go to our website. If you guys don't have that community where you can go to and you need to talk to somebody, we are more than willing to talk to you guys one-on-one with as a couple and see how we can overcome this temptation, how we can guide you back to God, and how we can find the glue to help your marriage and your specific need. We offer these services to you, donation base, and we are more than willing to stand alongside you guys and get through that. So if you don't have anyone, we offer ourselves to you. And we hope that you guys got something out of this series. Absolutely. This was definitely a hard series. It was a very serious series, but we felt like it needed to happen because if it does not get talked about, then it continues to remain in the shadows. And we are all about being naked and unashamed, the way God intended and designed marriages to be.

Kyle Almodovar: 31:41

Amen. We appreciate you being here. Um, let's close in prayer.

Selina Almodovar: 31:45

Yes.

Kyle Almodovar: 31:45

All right. Why don't you pray this time?

Selina Almodovar: 31:47

Thank you. I will. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for being who you are, just full of love, mercy, power. We thank you that you sent your son Jesus to come down so that he can feel all of the temptations that we feel in today's time. He knows what it's like, he knows what it goes on in our hearts and in our minds. He faced temptation himself and yet he walked away without sin. And Lord, we thank you for giving us this example, for giving us the Holy Spirit as our helper to help us get out of temptation. As your word tells us, there's always a way out that we can seek, Lord. We pray for the eyes to be opened, for the ears to be opened, for the hearts to be opened, so that for those couples who are struggling with temptation will see your way out. They would find the way to express themselves to one another, that the shame would be dismissed in their life, that the pride would be melted down to nothing, Lord, and that they can come together to not only see who the real enemy is, but that they can know who the true overcomer of temptation is as well. And when they invite you into their marriages, we pray over all the listeners, over all the watchers, Lord, that they would be blessed and that they would come together to know you better and to know each other better. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Kyle Almodovar: 33:07

Amen. We appreciate you being here. Thank you for loving by faith with us. We're a donation-based ministry. If the Lord has blessed you today and you feel led to give back to the ministry, we'd appreciate that from the bottom of our hearts. Follow the links in the description or the links in the bio. We'd be glad to connect with you and just say thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Selina Almodovar: 33:26

Absolutely.

Kyle Almodovar: 33:26

Um remember that if you're online, like, share, subscribe, leave a review, five stars on all the podcast platforms. We're thankful for you being here, thankful for you listening to us, and uh, we'll see you next time on Love by Faith.

Selina Almodovar: 33:38

If you're living in the States, then happy Thanksgiving. And we will come in next week with a new month and a new series. So tune in then.

Kyle Almodovar: 33:46

That's right.

Selina Almodovar: 33:46

Love by faith, y'all.

Kyle Almodovar: 33:47

Love by faith, yeah.

Selina Almodovar: 33:48

Bye.

Kyle Almodovar: 33:52

Good job.

Selina Almodovar: 33:53

You good job.

Kyle Almodovar: 33:55

So uh sweet potato casserole.

Selina Almodovar: 33:58

Oh.

Kyle Almodovar: 33:59

Or would you rather have the stuffing?

Selina Almodovar: 34:01

Oh, I like that.

Kyle Almodovar: 34:01

You'd only pick one.

Selina Almodovar: 34:02

No.

Kyle Almodovar: 34:02

Just pick one.

Selina Almodovar: 34:04

No. Come on. I can't. This or that? It's it's too hard for me. I love them both.

Kyle Almodovar: 34:09

Play along.

Selina Almodovar: 34:09

It's like children. I love them both. I have them favorite.

Kyle Almodovar: 34:12

Sweet potato casserole or stuffing.

Selina Almodovar: 34:14

Yeah, because one is sweet and one is savory. It's not it's not equally balanced. You'd have to do like mashed potatoes and and and macaroni and cheese.

Kyle Almodovar: 34:23

You don't like either of those things.

Selina Almodovar: 34:24

Or like sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.

Kyle Almodovar: 34:26

Alright, let me start easier.

Selina Almodovar: 34:28

Okay.

Kyle Almodovar: 34:29

Regular rolls or Hawaiian rolls?

Selina Almodovar: 34:31

Oh, none of them. Too many carbs. I'd go for the stuffing.

Kyle Almodovar: 34:34

I'm done. I'm done. Goodbye.

Selina Almodovar: 34:36

I'd go for the stuffing because that's all the carbs I need. I love it all. You want to know my dream Thanksgiving plate? Like. No, you ruined my this or that game. I'm sorry. I had a fun this or that. I like them all.

Kyle Almodovar: 34:51

See what I deal with?

Selina Almodovar: 34:53

Dang, don't.

Kyle Almodovar: 34:54

See what she deals with?

Selina Almodovar: 34:55

Listen, I need turkey. I need cranberry sauce. I need stuffing. I need sweet potatoes, some kind of carrot, some kind of green, whether that's a salad or a green bean. And then I feel like I'm healthy enough because I didn't need any of the mashed potatoes or the mac and cheese. The only carb I had was stuffing. And so I can stuff my face then with all of the desserts that are there. Whether that's a cheesecake, a pumpkin cake, a sweet potato pie, all the desserts. I would have no rolls, and I would drink a sparkling juice at the end. With gravy, all the gravy.

Kyle Almodovar: 35:32

So in a tournament style, this or that. Who's your winner of the tournament? Who's the most important at the Thanksgiving table?

Selina Almodovar: 35:40

The most important at the Thanksgiving would have to be the turkey, of course.

Kyle Almodovar: 35:43

Would it?

Selina Almodovar: 35:44

I think so. Or stuffing, because I never eat stuffing any other time of the year. Or dressing, or depending on where you live.

Kyle Almodovar: 35:54

Hey. Alright. That's what I was getting at. I was gonna do like a tournament style, this or that. I didn't know. I didn't know. You didn't tell me. You didn't say that. I tried. I tried.

Selina Almodovar: 36:03

I'm sorry. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.