For good reasons, some of which are associated with the universal male tendency toward sexual conquest. In general, the heart of a man will roam, while the heart of a woman seeks a home. Male sexual energy persists past female menopause, causing men to seek younger partners-or at least to be vulnerable to the temptation of doing so. The male by nature has no long-term investment in pregnancy; he may inseminate regularly with no time lost for childbirth. How are these biological appetites to be curbed, directed, focused?

• By developing and nurturing the partnership to which a man commits himself during the height of his (and his wife’s) sexual passion. Sex is an engine, but it’s not the whole train.

• By understanding family as a gift from God, a holy union in which children are nurtured in faith and older age is met with grace and companionship.

• By using sexual fancy as opportunity for relishing the intimacy enjoyed with one’s wife, year by year, through happiness and turmoil, until death sakes its claim.

Surely woman enjoy sexual fantasies, too, and some are attracted to multiple partners. But the greater incentive is wired into the male mind and body, where marital breakdown more often begins.

MALACHI 2:14-16 – ¹⁴ Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.

¹⁵ And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

¹⁶ For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the Lord of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.