Marriage is hard no doubt, but it is also beautiful and requires lots of patience to make things work. It takes a mature couple to realize that there will always be another woman or man, more attractive, hardworking or appealing than your spouse. However, you came together for a reason, you bore children and have endured many years together. Is that all worth giving up for the few moments or hours of pleasure that adultery would offer?

The counterfeit pleasure of an affair can never overcome the many ways it can destroy a life and marriage. A spouse who is an adulterer only lives for the moment, caught up in a fantasy of excitement and desire, and ignoring the very real consequences that may arise from it. It is still sad that some people know and are aware of the pain their selfishness will cause, but still proceed with it. Find below 20 ways adultery can affect you, your spouse, children and the other person involved.

1. I would suffer from the emotional consequences of guilt.
2. I would spend countless hours replaying the failure.
3. My wife/husband would suffer the scars of this abuse more deeply than I could begin to describe.
4. My wife  / husband would spend countless hours in counseling.
5. My wife’s / husband’s recovery would be long and painful.
6. Her / his pain would grieve me deeply and compound my own suffering and shame.
7. Our relationship would suffer a break in trust, fellowship, and intimacy.
8. We would be together, yet feel great loneliness.
9. The reputation of my family would suffer loss.
10. My children would be deeply disappointed.
11. My friends would be disappointed and would question my integrity.
12. I would suffer God’s discipline.
13. My wife / husband might divorce me.
14. My children might never speak to me.
15. If the woman is married, her husband might attempt to bring harm.
16. He might divorce her.
17. An unwanted child could be produced.
18. My part in conception might trigger an abortion, the killing of an innocent child.
19. Disease might result
20. I might have to start life over again