Create in Me A Pure Heart Oh God.: Dealing with lust and having fun at the same time.

Last week I was in San Diego listening to some people give a talk on purity and chastity.  I have been a Catholic my whole life and I have heard this stuff many, many times over and I have always been on-board with the message so it really was not anything new to me.  It was a good talk though.  There was one thing though that you always hear about at these things that has never satisfied me...Dealing with lustful thoughts.  They gave an example of how to deal with it, and once again I was far from satisfied.  I have actively spent the last 15 years of my life trying to find a reasonable way to deal with it and I have heard many things over the years.  Suggestions like "give the girl a name," or "say some kind of prayer,"  I guess those suggestions were ok, but I have only been marginally impressed by their effectiveness.  I am not sure exactly how it happened.  Like many things in my life their is a long and complicated story behind it, but the other night I think God whispered a new suggestion in my ear.

At the end of the day God is really not looking for slaves or servants or people just following his orders.  That would be lame and he would get bored.  What he really wants are friends and sons and daughters.  People who share his passion for community and togetherness etc, etc.  No one wants a friend who does things just because they are forced to do them.  You want a friend who wants, from the bottom of their heart ot be on the same page and come to similar goals.  God wants us to have a heart similar to his.  God wants to transform us to have a pure Heart.  This is one of the fundamental differences between Catholisim and Secular Humanism.  Secular humanism only cares out measurable results.  Catholicism seeks personal transformation of the heart for the purpose of friendship with God.  In the case of lustful thoughts this is an example of a disordered passion.  A lack of cleanliness of heart.  God really wants us to desire a pure heart.  It's in the beatitudes:

"Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God,"

It is easy to get into the thinking that lustful thoughts are some kind of "thought crime,"  I think this is missing the point.  The point is God wants us to be transformed to have a pure heart and intentions.  So what was the suggestion I was given?  It was simple.  When you are tempted you just pray the following prayer,

"Create in me, a clean heart oh God"

They say that when you sing you pray twice, so if you want to you can even sing it.  I used to be in church choirs and singing is fun so that is what I do.  In this case not only are you just getting away from the temptation of lust, you are also trying to improve your practice of the Beatitudes.  Every temptation to lust is now an opportunity to become a better person plus you get to sing which is also fun.  I feel like this is so much more peaceful and fulfilling than all the suggestions I have heard in the past and I just thought I would share it in case it might help anyone else out.  It seems so easy and obvious I feel a bit foolish after all these years.  I guess it will help may humility along as well.  I hope you enjoy.