Difference between attraction & lust?

[vortigen84]

This is one that's confusing to me.

What is the difference between finding someone sexually attractive and lusting after them?

For example, if I want a wife I'm not going to marry an old lady or a middle-aged man because that is not attractive to me in the slightest, I don't want to have sex with those people though they may be good friends. If I want someone I'll go for a woman in her mid-20s because that to me is attractive and I would definitely rather have sex with her. In marriage to be sure - I am a Christian - but all the same.

Is this lust?

 

[wholigan11]

Considering you're only 27, it's natural to want someone that's your own age, but it does sound like lust.

It's more than being physically attracted to the person. Get to know the person on the inside. Just because someone is beautiful on the outside doesn't mean they're beautiful on the outside.

And don't worry about whether you'll want to have sex with that person or not. If that person is right for you and you love her, sex is not going to be an issue. Sex is a gift from God for the married. It's not only for reproduction, but also a way to express love and be delighting in one another. It's a key part in husbands and wives becoming one person.

 

[Johnnz]

Not at all. Lust is a moral category. Wrong sexual lust requires both desire and intent, given opportunity, to transgress moral value. Planning to rob a bank but having one's getaway car break down on the way is wrong in spite of not being able to carry through your plan.

But we are sexual beings. It is not at all wrong to have sexual desires and physical responses to sexual stimuli. Attractiveness is part of human sexuality, an incentive to seek one's life partner. we are normally healthily and morally sexual beings. it is a matter of not misusing sex, not being asexual that constitutes sound sexual morality.

John
NZ

 

[sicarii67]

IMO, there is no way not to lust in a romantic relationship. Its that very chemical, organic response that even interests you in finding a mate. Also, if we never had sex, what would be the point of being married? Just dont overindulge in it and definately try to build a frienship rather than being focused on the lust.