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Sub Category : LifeStyle

Moral decay usually doesn't happen all at once. Rather, it moves toward the negative  bit by bit. Here are a few ways this can happen:

Someone we know and maybe respect gets us to move our moral compass by example or otherwise. It could happen over the passage of time or by force, but whatever the case, we take that step.

Peer pressure is another reason this can happen. "The crowd" is doing it, so we may feel pressured to give in to do it also. Maybe we don't want to disappoint someone or lose a friendship? A question: "Would a true friend or other, pressure you into doing this?"

You bring decay on yourself by being dissatisfied with your life. You want to make a change, but instead of thinking it through as to consequences, you act impulsively. The trap is sprung!

You want something so much that you go to any length to get it. Instead of saving for it, you may put it on a credit card and pay a high price later with interest, especially if you cannot pay it off. This becomes a habit, and you become perpetually in debt.

A person you know wants you to do something just once, that's all. The problem is, they can use this against you in the future to get you to do it again, or something worse. The rationale goes like this:"you did ____before, so why not now.?" 

Or we let down our morals and do this to ourselves.

 Another thing that can happen is we let someone do something that isn't good for them, then it becomes more and more of a problem for them as it progresses into a bad habit or addiction, and becomes a problem for us now because we allowed them to start down that wrong path. 

Remember that a bad habit will become a necessity, and a necessity will eventually become an addiction.

These and other things can ensnare us and will make our lives worse. If you never start something bad for you in whatever way, you will never have to stop it for medical or other reasons. Take, for example, smoking. One man I met in ICU, when I was a hospital chaplain, had smoked for 60 years. Now he was dying. How tragic! He probably didn't intend to smoke that long or impair his health, but the consequences reared their heads, and he lost his life because of it. 

Many people see the Bible as a bunch of rules they don't want to make part of their lives. God had good reasons for what he told the Israelites to do in the Old Testament. The New Testament doesn't have as many rules, but the ones there are also for our good. If you ever study the Bible with an open mind and heart, you will see the reasons behind the commands.

Mankind is self-destructive by nature because of sin in our world. Look at the all-consuming hate the terror attacks bring to society! The hate became larger as time progressed, and look at the results.

So be careful what you start and what you hang onto. There may be a trap attached to eventually ruin your life.

If you don't stop something that is hurting you, it will over time kill you physically, emotionally, or spiritually----perhaps all three.