Our first love is something we can never forget and, although it hurts when we break up, the beautiful memories stay with us. Years later, she meets her first love again and, before she knows it, she falls into a trap of seduction and her life is thrown into chaos…. God’s words guide her to resist temptation and escape the trap, and she once again regains her tranquil life.

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They Bump Into Each Other on the Street—It’s Really Him!

On a calm, sunny, bright afternoon, Li was standing on the side of the road trying to hail a cab to take her shopping, but all the cabs that passed by were taken already. She was waiting anxiously when, just then, a luxury SUV suddenly braked and stopped in front of her.

The car window dropped down and Li saw a face she knew very well indeed, smiling back at her. Li was amazed—it was her first ever boyfriend, Tao! She said excitedly, “Wow, is it really you? I never would have thought I’d bump into you here.”

“I know, it’s such a coincidence! Where are you off to? I’ll take you.” Li got in the car and they talked about everything, chatting all the way. When they got to the store, they exchanged contact details.

Li and Tao had been together while they were in middle school and had broken up after graduating. It was so unexpected that they would meet again after so many years.

Li Relives Her First Love but Just Wants to Stay Good Friends

After they exchanged contact details, Tao often wanted to chat with Li. Li heard that Tao had become successful in business and that he was very well-known in the local area, and she felt as though they were not really on the same level. Feeling herself inferior to him, Li did not want to have too much contact with Tao, so it was always Tao who contacted Li first.

When Tao asked how Li’s husband was, she spoke truthfully, saying, “I don’t think my husband is right for me. He’s not really very caring toward me, and he has strayed before and betrayed me. I’m pretty conservative in my thinking, so I feel like if we get divorced and I try to find someone else, other people will talk behind my back. We’ve been together now for years, anyway, so we may as well just make do with each other.” Tao responded in kind and told Li how he truly felt as well. He said, “I have no feelings for my wife, just a kind of affection. I force myself to live with her for the sake of our children.” Li never would have thought that Tao, who seemed so successful in life, was not actually that happy after all. Li therefore felt as though she had found someone she could talk to, and whenever something happened that made her unhappy, she would talk to Tao about it. Over time, the two of them became such good friends that there was nothing they could not say to each other.

Through her contact with Tao, Li soon found out that Tao was a lovely guy. Whenever their classmates from school all got together, it was always Tao who hosted them, and whenever one of their classmates had an issue, they would always seek Tao’s help, and he always did everything he could for them. Sometimes, Li would daydream about what it would have been like if they’d stayed together all this time—it would have been so great! Unfortunately, things were different now; they were both married and it was just not possible for anything to happen between them. The thought of them being together came and went, and Li thought that it would be more realistic to just be Tao’s good friend.

Not long afterward, Li sought Tao’s help with a problem she was having, and he not only expended a great deal of effort to help her, but he also spent some money to help her as well. One time, Li’s husband was having issues with funding, and so Li plucked up her courage and asked Tao to lend them 200 thousand yuan. Very matter-of-factly, Tao transferred the money into Li’s account, and from then on Li felt very obliged to Tao. Tao would often say to Li, “No matter what the problem, just tell me about it and I’ll do everything I can to help you.” Tao’s words greatly moved Li, and she felt as though Tao was the best friend she could ever possibly have met in her lifetime.

Her First Love Expresses His Desires and She Falls Into a Trap of Emotions

“I have everything I want right now, but my greatest regret in life is that I don’t have you with me. I wonder, could you make this wish come true?”

When Li heard this, she laughed, and replied very sensibly, “We can’t be together. We were just not fated to be together forever, and it was predestined in heaven that we would not get married and have a family. We both now have our own families, and we mustn’t stray or do anything to disappoint our families.” Li then said humorously, “Surely there’s no lack of beauties around such a wealthy and important man as you? It’s right that we should just stay friends.”

Tao laid his cards on the table and said, “You’re right. There are indeed many young women around me who are younger and more beautiful than you. But I have absolutely no interest in them whatsoever—you are the only one I want in life. If I can’t be with you, then that will be my life’s greatest regret.” Li was moved by what Tao said. Here was a man both rich and powerful who had no lack of beautiful women around him, and yet he loved her so much. Surely this was true love? She thought of her husband who couldn’t match up to Tao in any way, who had previously had an affair and betrayed her and who had no idea how to cherish her—he simply could not compare to Tao. From that moment on, Li’s heart was in turmoil …

Every day, all Li could think about was Tao’s voice and his smile, his every gesture and movement. She was so used to chatting with him that if they weren’t able to talk to each other for a day then it felt like something was missing, and she would feel listless. She became unwilling to say more than a few words to her husband, and she even disliked her husband being at home as his presence interfered with her chats with Tao….

Ever since her husband’s affair, the thing she hated the most was when a mistress destroyed a man’s family, and she felt nothing but disgust for the women on the side. Now, her first ever love was pursuing her relentlessly and she felt it incredibly difficult to resist the temptation to love him back. If this carried on, wouldn’t she become the other woman who would destroy someone else’s family? She felt torn: She liked Tao, but she was afraid that other people would scorn her. Because her morals would not allow her to take it any further, she still refused to take that step.

Tao tried all kinds of ways to win Li over: He always gave her special presents on celebration days, and cosmetics and perfumes on normal days…. Li refused the gifts each time, and so Tao would ask others to give them to Li instead. Li worried that if this continued for much longer then she wouldn’t be able to withstand it, and so she made the conscious decision to restrain herself and to keep her distance from Tao. Whenever Tao asked her to meet him somewhere, she would come up with excuses so as not to go.

One day, Tao said to Li, “I want to be with you. I’ll take care of things with my family. Once we’re together, I’ll give you a million yuan to invest in a business. You can do anything you want.” Li tried to appear calm, and said, “No. I can’t be with you. If we got together then other people would curse us and laugh at us behind our backs! And what would our old classmates think of me then? Wouldn’t they say that I’m the other woman who’s given to vanity and who goes around breaking up other people’s families?” Tao took no notice but went on, saying, “What are you afraid of? Look at the age we’re living in now. No one mocks someone for having an affair these days. Don’t be so old-fashioned! Anyway, what I feel for you is real and I’ll always take care of you. It’s fine. You can have some time to think it over, and I’ll be here waiting for you for as long as it takes.” Li was moved by Tao’s sincerity and she wanted to agree to his proposal right there and then. Her heart was engaged in a fierce battle with itself, however, and she thought: “He’s so good to me so maybe it is true love! Anyway, aren’t many people doing it in today’s society? Plus my husband doesn’t treat me as well as Tao does. With Tao, I could have anything I want, and isn’t that what I’ve always dreamed of?” After a little while, she thought again: “No, we mustn’t! It would be immoral and other people would spurn us.” She had fallen into a trap of her own emotions, and she didn’t know what to do for the best …

What Seemed to Be “True Love” Turns Out to Be a Trap

With a heavy heart, Li walked to a park and sat alone on a bench under a pavilion.

“Gosh, what’s up with you? I’ve been calling and calling and you didn’t reply,” said a good friend of Li’s as she walked over.

Li told her good friend Qian about all that was troubling her heart….

Qian listened patiently until Li had finished speaking and then, sighing, she said, “Today’s society is wicked and corrupt. Everyone uses one another and cheats one another, and when someone is nice to you there is always some hidden motive. Think about it. There is no real love between a husband and wife who live together for years and years, much less between lovers; many people go searching outside of their marriages for a lover, but what they are actually searching for is stimulation and the feeling of something new, so where is the true love in that? Many men and women pledge themselves together forever before they get married and say that they will grow old together. But after they get married, some get divorced and some have affairs. Can you guarantee that Tao will be faithful to you for the rest of your lives? Since he is capable of betraying his wife to pursue you, how can you be sure that he won’t go looking for another woman behind your back? If he truly does love you, then he will respect you and will respect your families. You must not be deceived by false appearances. Come home with me and we’ll have a good talk about this.”

Qian poured a cup of water for Li and said earnestly, “We live in this wicked world that has been corrupted by Satan and we can’t tell the difference between what is good and beautiful and what is wicked and ugly. Without the guidance of God’s words, it is very difficult to resist all manner of temptations. So many people cannot help but end up falling into emotional whirlpools and they live very painful lives. Let’s read a passage of God’s words together.”

God’s words say: “We only wish to talk about the ideas that social trends bring about for people, the way they cause people to conduct themselves in the world, the life goals and outlook that they bring about in people. … When the wind of a trend blows through, perhaps only a small number of people will become the trendsetters. They start off doing this kind of thing, accepting this kind of idea or this kind of perspective. The majority of people, however, in the midst of their unawareness, will still be continually infected, assimilated and attracted by this kind of trend, until they all unknowingly and involuntarily accept it, and are all submerged in and controlled by it. For man who is not of sound body and mind, who never knows what is truth, who cannot tell the difference between positive and negative things, these kinds of trends one after another make them all willingly accept these trends, the life view and values that come from Satan. They accept what Satan tells them on how to approach life and the way to live that Satan ‘bestows’ on them. They have not the strength, neither do they have the ability, much less the awareness to resist.”

After reading God’s words, Qian gave Li fellowship, saying, “We can see from God’s words that Satan creates all manner of evil trends to corrupt our minds. Because we are dominated by all kinds of satanic views and ideas, many people can’t help but follow these evil trends and they frolic in sexual lust, they covet the pleasures of sin and they lose their integrity and dignity. Take the popular heresies and fallacies such as ‘Having a wife or husband at home but also taking a lover,’ ‘It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,’ and ‘Love can never be wrong.’ They all seduce people into committing sin to satisfy their own physical desires, and they prevent people from distinguishing between what is positive and what is negative, so that people think that it’s only right and proper to pursue extramarital affairs. Thus, people become more and more dissolute and depraved, until gradually they are assimilated wholly by these trends. Men looking for lovers and women becoming mistresses has become a fad, so much so that many people flaunt themselves and feel no shame. Why are people becoming more and more wicked and depraved, and why is the divorce rate so high? The majority of people have been seduced by the evil trends of Satan and are powerless to resist. And so, family after family ends up ruined, and all this leaves an indelible shadow on the children. For example, your first love is pursuing you behind his wife’s back, completely and utterly heedless of the damage this could cause both your families—does this not show that he has been assimilated by these evil trends? You also know that you cannot be with Tao, but when you see many people in society behaving this way, your heart begins to sway, you cannot let go of him relying solely on your sense of self-restraint, and you are tormented unbearably by your feelings. From this, we can see that the evil theories Satan indoctrinates people with corrupt us and cause us to become depraved. If we blindly follow these theories, then all they will bring to both ourselves and our families is pain. Only by rejecting Satan and conducting ourselves in accordance with the requirements of God can we live at ease with ourselves as human beings. Li, you must understand this clearly, and you must not blindly follow the evil trends of society and become a victim to Satan!”

After listening to God’s words and Qian’s fellowship, Li finally realized that she had fallen into a trap laid for her by Satan. She had taken Tao’s open-handed and generous help as genuine love, and had not understood that, by doing this, Tao was following in the wake of the evil trends of society, and that he was playing the role of Satan in seducing her into depravity. Filled with emotion, Li said, “Yes! So many people stray from their marriages these days, and the divorce rate this leads to is so high as well. So actually, it’s all because the evil trends of Satan are harming people. Satan does all it can to deceive those without discernment into following it blindly, it makes people unable to tell right from wrong, and it ravages and hurts people.”

Afterward, Qian read a passage from Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life: “Think about when you see someone of the opposite sex and have some lewd thoughts, how do you deal with this problem? At the very least you must first respect marriage. If the person has a husband (or wife), then you need to respect this person’s marriage. You cannot interfere with someone’s marriage; to respect others is to respect yourself, if you do not respect others then you do not respect yourself. If you respect others then others will respect you. If in your heart you do not respect marriage then you do not have humanity. If you are able to respect marriage, if you are able to love others and respect others, then you will not do things that harm others. If you are able to refuse someone even when they throw themselves into your arms, then you are dealing with things properly. What must you be equipped with to be able to refuse these temptations and seductions? You must be equipped with the truth, then you will be able to see these things very clearly. After you are able to clearly see the substance of this issue, then you will know what kind of harm the actions on your part will bring to others, you will know what kind of injuries others suffer from in their hearts, you will know to what extent you’ve wrecked someone’s personality, and once you understand these things you will no longer act in ways that cause them; whenever these kinds of thoughts and ideas come into your mind you will be able to reject them, you will not be interested in them, you will not pay attention to them, because they will not sway your heart. … If someone is mindful of their duties in their heart, then when these small thoughts creep into their head they will not affect them, and these thoughts will not arise often, because there is no use for them to arise. How would these thoughts be able to arise if you don’t think about them? If you do not accept these things in your heart, then they will disappear from your mind before they have a chance to sprout.”

After listening to this fellowship, Li said emotionally, “These words have woken me up and I now know how to approach Tao. I was almost devoured by Satan and had almost embarked upon an evil road. Thanks be to God for saving me in time! I’d always detested these evil trends, especially people having affairs. I never would have expected that, when I encountered the exact same thing, I wouldn’t be able to escape this kind of seduction, this kind of temptation, either. Those satanic views and ideas are inside me as well, and I’d believed that many people were living like that these days. What’s more, I had even come to believe that I would be willing to endure other people’s scorn for someone I loved and for the sake of love itself. I had dreamed of a happy life together with him—he loved me so much, I loved him, he could make me happy, we could be together, and all of this was right and proper. I really didn’t dare believe that I would do all of this just to satisfy my own desires and that I was living by such satanic views and ideas as ‘Love is supreme’ and ‘Love can never be wrong.’ I just didn’t consider how much hurt I would cause my family and I almost lost my humanity and reason; it seems as though I really have been so deeply poisoned by Satan! … Through your fellowship, I now understand that those statements that seem so popular in today’s society are wrong and they are a trap that entices me into depravity. Satan is so despicable, I almost followed Satan’s evil trends and did something that would have made people spurn me. I owe God’s words my thanks for guiding me in time, otherwise I would have been devoured by Satan. I’ve also found the path of practice and I know that, to be a person, we must possess normal humanity and reason and learn to respect other people and respect marriage, for if we can’t respect other people then other people won’t respect us. All we will do is destroy our own dignity and hurt other people. I must learn how to resist the seductions and temptations that come from Satan and pursue the truth in earnest to be someone with humanity.”

Li Understands the Truth and Resists Temptation

Over the days that followed, Li read God’s words whenever she had the time and prayed to God to help her to keep away from the temptation of her first love. She read God’s words that say: “Because the essence of God is holy, that means that only through God can you walk the bright, right road through life; only through God can you know the meaning of life, only through God can you live out a real life, possess the truth, know the truth, and only through God can you obtain life from the truth. Only God Himself can help you shun evil and deliver you from the harm and control of Satan. Besides God, no one and nothing can save you from the sea of suffering so that you suffer no longer: This is determined by the essence of God.” Li knew very well that, in this wicked society, although she herself hated mistresses on the side, because she understood too few truths, she was still unable to overcome temptation and had been played by Satan until she was in a state of utter confusion. Only God’s words could help her to tell between good and evil, to keep away from the harm of Satan, and only God’s words would lead her onto the right path so that she may live with dignity and integrity. Afterward, Li often attended church gatherings and she became more and more discerning about the evil trends of Satan. In particular, whenever she heard a brother or sister talking about how they managed to keep away from the harm caused by Satan’s evil trends, Li would feel very encouraged. Gradually, Li let go of her feelings for Tao and, no matter how Tao tried to butter her up, her heart remained unmoved.

After some time had gone by, Tao said to Li in a disappointed tone, “I really can’t figure you out. You’re really not like other women. They all fawn on me and hang around me, doing all they can to ingratiate themselves with me. Only you don’t care how I treat you and you’re not impressed no matter what I do. I’ve never felt so defeated before….” After that, Tao never contacted Li again.

Li thanked God from the bottom of her heart for protecting her and guiding her, for enabling her to keep away from the temptations of Satan’s evil trends, and she finally regained her tranquil life.

Source: Find the Shepherd

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