This episode of ACW is sponsored by Ascension’s Alto!

Questions answered this episode:

1. I'm wondering if you have advice on how to handle a situation where kindness is interpreted as romantic interest. I want to treat others with dignity and view them the way God sees them. However, I've been in situations where a male friend will interpret this as romantic interest. Even when I politely decline and express that I only desire to be friends, I wonder if their agreement to remain friends is truly uncomplicated. I get the sense that they may still be hoping I'll change my mind. How can I navigate opposite-sex friendships in a warm and charitable way, while not unintentionally giving someone false hope or causing greater hurt?
2. In the 1860s, there was a dialogue amongst Calvinists that referred to the Holy Spirit as possessing womanly attributes. The thought was, since both man and woman are created in the image of God, and two members of the Trinity are decidedly masculine, there must naturally be a member who bequeathed the feminine nature of woman, leaving the Holy Spirit as the natural conclusion. I sense that this line of thought is deeply flawed, but I would love a definitive counterargument. This is purely for academic purposes and not a question of urgency or crisis of faith.
3. I am a Catholic man in his mid-twenties, and am engaged to be married in the spring. I'm increasingly afraid that I'm blurring the lines between chaste desire and attraction, and lust. Shortly after we got engaged, I had a setback with masturbation, and I'm afraid it's becoming a pattern. I try to be honest with her, and she's so patient and gracious. I feel like my sin recently hasn't been so much a sin of lust, but of impatience. How do I go deeper in my healing now that sexual intimacy is close, and communicate that healing with my fiancée?I am a Catholic man in his mid-twenties, and am engaged to be married in the spring. I'm increasingly afraid that I'm blurring the lines between chaste desire and attraction, and lust. Shortly after we got engaged, I had a setback with masturbation, and I'm afraid it's becoming a pattern. I try to be honest with her, and she's so patient and gracious. I feel like my sin recently hasn't been so much a sin of lust, but of impatience. How do I go deeper in my healing now that sexual intimacy is close, and communicate that healing with my fiancée?

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