"Everyone Needs Protection" - Guest Post by Cindy Beall

Cindy Beall is a writer, speaker, and a mentor to women. She and her husband, Chris, speak openly about their difficult journey through Chris' infidelity and pornography addiction that nearly destroyed their marriage and ministry. Through God's grace they have inspired thousands of couples and have returned to full-time ministry where Chris serves as the Oklahoma City Campus Pastor at LifeChurch.tv. www.cindybeall.com

 For their marriage, that is. A couple of weeks ago I asked my readers many questions. Two of the questions I asked were what the 

baby steps were that could lead to an affair

 and what we should do 

to make our marriages strong and affair-proof

. I received some great comments, nuggets of wisdom and stellar advice from people who have walked through infidelity as well as those who've been spared from it.

It should come as no surprise to you that divorce statistics continue to rise for a number of reasons. I goggled reasons for divorce and found that there are numerous things that play a part in the demise of many marriages. Financial issues, abuse, incompatibility, convenience, sexual problems, addictions, communication problems, mid-life crises, little things and marital unfaithfulness.

So does that mean that if we don't have financial issues, abuse, sexual problems, communication problems, a mid-life crisis and infidelity that we won't get divorced? Chances are good that if the issues listed above aren't present, that you'll have a pretty healthy marriage. Not perfect, but healthy.

But how does one go about getting a healthy marriage? Well, my experience says that a couple of things are necessary.Communication and protection.

Communicate about everything. EVERYTHING. Even if it's uncomfortable or painful or embarrassing. We have to do the hard stuff to get the good stuff.

Protect your most important human relationship. I think we assume that our marriages will be fine. But, if we don't set up safeguards and healthy boundaries, we could find ourselves slipping on a very slippery slope. And before we know it, we'll end up in a place we never thought we'd end up.

I don't want that for you just like I don't want that for me.

My challenge to you today is this: Take time to talk to your spouse about everything and truly become best friends. And protect you