In volume 4 of his commentary set on Romans, the noted preacher Donald Barnhouse tells the following story:

A man I knew through my ministry was going with a girl who, some of us thought, was not at all worthy of him. We breathed a sigh of relief when he went away into the army for two or three years (this was during the war). The girl drifted around with other fellows, and, most happily, the young man met a worthy girl in a distant city. He fell in love with her and married her.

When the war was over and he had returned to his home with his bride, the first girl drove by the house one evening and dropped in to see her old flame and meet his wife. But the wife was not there. The first girl made no attempt to hide her affection and moved in such a voluptuous way that the young man realized he had but to reach out his hand and she was his. He told me about it afterwards.

There was within him all that goes with male desire. There was something much more within and he began to talk about what a wonderful girl he had married. He showed the pictures of his wife to the first girl and praised his wife to the skies, acting as though he did not understand her obvious advances. It was not long before she left, saying as she went, “Yes, she must be quite a girl if she can keep you from reaching.”

I wonder how many affairs could be prevented, how many temptresses and tempters defanged, if only spouses would start bragging on their better halves the way the fellow in Barnhouse’s story did. After all, happy homes certainly make poor soil for sexual sin. So, are you married? Then get in the habit of singing the praises of your spouse to others. That’s a great way to keep potential home-wreckers at bay!