The Happy Hour #538: Boundaries with Jim Cress

Disclaimer: This episode contains discussions about pornography and sex addictions.

This Boundaries series has been a fun and meaningful one for us to put together, and I can’t believe we’ve reached the end of these episodes! For our final interview of the series, Jim Cress closes us out, and there couldn’t have been a more perfect person to wrap it all up. 

Jim is a father, a husband of almost 38 years, a licensed professional counselor and certified sex addiction therapist, as well as an ordained minister through Dallas Baptist Seminary.  

Jim and I talk about boundaries within a marriage, why boundaries in a marriage are necessary, defining what a boundary is, and what it looks like for a parent to walk through a pornography addiction with their child. Boundaries can seem like a scary thing but my hope for you is that you see boundaries as good things. Boundaries are to keep us safe, which is an example of agape love because we are called to love our neighbors as we love ourselves – we can only do that if we are setting good boundaries. Jim defined a boundary as, “Not controlling the other person but controlling ourselves,” and when we understand this, we begin to set boundaries more frequently.

We wrapped up our conversation discussing how spouses should address one another when one may be struggling with pornography, along with practical ways to be proactive with your kids about their sexual life. These are not easy conversations, but if we declare what is true and seek help, we can have hope that things will change.

I hope you have enjoyed this series as much as I did. Now let’s go out and live healthier lives by setting good boundaries with our spouses, kids, friends, co-workers, and our technology.

{You can listen to the show HERE, and make sure you never miss a Happy Hour by subscribing through your favorite podcast app (ie. iTunes, Stitcher).  And of course, I would love if you would share with your friends!}