3. Pray for Her!

Going along with this whole "View her as a person and not an object" idea, try praying for the girl when you see her.  Sure, at first your prayers might be along the lines of, "Lord, please bless this woman with a bigger shirt or a job as a nun," but eventually you will start to earnestly pray for the daughter of God that you're passing or that you're talking to.  It's a great strategy and it works.  Try it today.  She is a person, just like your sister or a friend's sister.  Speaking of which …

4. Picture Her as Your Sister

There are four women in this world whom I love more than anyone else.  They are my awesome mom and my three amazing sisters, Ellen, Susan, and Jane.  I would do anything for any one of them, and I get absolutely ticked when I hear that anyone has done anything to hurt them or offend them.  I also have no problem whatsoever understanding that each one of them is a precious and beloved daughter of the Most High God, and I demand that I and everyone else treat them as nothing less than that.  I become much more leery of the world when I consider my sisters.

One of my best friends believes the "sister view" is the way to go.  "Whenever you see a woman whom you're attracted to, begin thinking of her as a sister, even praying for her as a sister.  If it's necessary, imagine that person being your actual sister – that, for most guys, cools off the lust because it suggests something that most people would be absolutely disgusted with.

Darren, who is twenty-one, then adds, "Keeping with this sister theme – imagine what you would do to another guy who even thought about your sister the way you're thinking of this girl.  Most guys are fiercely protective of their sisters' safety – the idea of a guy touching her wrong is stronger than most any other instinct I can think of.  I threaten my sister's many 'pursuers' with my 32-inch, 27-ounce Easton metal baseball bat that consistent years of baseball, softball, and batting cages have enabled me to swing at terrifying velocities.  I have to threaten myself too."

We become a little more honest about the way things are when our sisters and mothers are concerned.  But wait, something doesn't add up here:  If we are children of God and these girls are also children of God, then that must mean that we're both … siblings!  These girls are our sisters! 

So why doesn't that relationship change things?  Oh, because we might marry one of them and then we'll be allowed to have sex with her?  But the problem is that we will at best marry just one of these people we call girls, and all the rest of them will never be our wife!  Besides, absolutely none of them is our wife right now, so there is no one that we may have sexual thoughts about!

5. Occupy Your Mind

I know that occupying your mind is a tough task, but there are so many other thoughts to think!  Take up a sport, learn to fix cars, become a marine, write a book, go to college, go to high school:  do something productive with your brain today!  Can you imagine the potential we guys would have if we channeled all the mental energy we invest in thinking about women into something productive?  We'd be colonizing Mars and taking vacations to Jupiter by now!