Tiger Woods announced yesterday that he is returning to golf. And maybe he will return to the glory days when he was the best player in the sport; but he will always be looked upon as the man who lied to millions.
Anyone who engages in extramarital affairs does so because they lack true character and integrity. A person of true character will stand by their vows through moments of temptation and not cheat on their spouse and family.
Marriage is made on the promise to love, to be sexually exclusive, and you give your spouse a reason to believe in you - Trust.
Adultery forever changes a spouse and children and sometimes lives are shattered with devastating consequences.
Self-esteem is crushed, and trust can become a life-long issue for the ones who were betrayed and for the betrayer.
If you can betray those who love you, how can anyone else trust you?
A cheater thinks only of how they benefit from their affair. The truth is they really are hiding behind their own wall of deception; surviving in the moments of their bad behavior.
And then there are those who cheat showing little or no remorse for their adulterous actions and actually blame their spouses. The only ones responsible for adultery are those that commit the adultery.
All cheaters show is that they have little regard for themselves; and if you can’t love yourself first- then really how can we expect the cheater to care about his family- or anyone else for that matter?
I remember an interview John McCain had given during the presidential election. He was asked about his adultery and his subsequent marriage to his Mistress.
His response was that it was thirty years ago…He wasn’t going to address it! It didn’t matter!
But it did matter - even if it was thirty years ago. A man’s past and his behavior follows him always - even beyond the grave.
The fact is McCain wanted to be with another woman (younger and richer) and it didn’t matter how he hurt his wife, the one who had waited for him and prayed for his safety while he was a Prisoner of War. She was his wife and had been severely injured in an accident and needed her husband more than ever. It didn’t matter that he destroyed her or his family. All that mattered was what he wanted.
McCain always talks about his character, ever the one to talk about his years imprisoned in Vietnam - but being a POW doesn’t give a man character. Character comes from how you treat people.
Cheaters like McCain and Tiger Woods, just do whatever they want to get what they want.
And thirty years from now, Tiger will find himself avoiding questions just as McCain did.
In the end, everything a person does in life comes back to the values of who they are.
“Watch how you treat people on your way up because you’ll meet them on your way down.”
