There's a Hooters In My Town!
Why does it call to me every time I drive by?

I can't see much detail, but it doesn't really matter. It's the thought that counts.

Every guy that's ever passed a billboard with one of those girls on it will have a hard time forgetting them. For the Hooters girls are proof that Satan works feverishly not just to tempt our eyes but to infiltrate and control our imaginations.

The real temptation of the Hooters girls is not that they wear tight clothes. Think about it. We can see provocatively dressed women (and more of them) almost anywhere...at the movies, on television, and even at church on Sunday mornings.

No, the hook is that these girls openly desire to be our fantasy. They wanted to be Hooters girls. There is no doubt that they understand the minds of men and are willing participants in the fantasy.

That's why if you're like me it's hard for you to drive by a billboard and not get hooked by your imagination. It's hard to drive by the restaurant and not daydream about how much fun it would be to go inside, if only you weren't you and you could escape into a world of irresponsibility any time you wish.

Since this temptation occurs at a fixed location, I have been profoundly fascinated by the chemical response this triggers involuntarily. My heart quickens. I experience a curious mixture of excitement and fear, desire and tension.

This "trigger" is a learned response--similar to what athletes call "muscle memory." Many players whose muscles have been out of commission for a period of time report retraining that muscle at an accelerated rate upon returning to the practice field. Science calls this a phenomenon because it cannot quite be explained medically, but the fact is that the muscle does "remember."

Motion picture sound tracks are a good example of how our brains develop muscle memory. Remember the sound track to Jaws? Even though the theme is played by the same instruments that might perform the "Star Spangled Banner," the Jaws theme involuntarily triggers fearful visuals and unsettling emotions. (Believe me! It won't be the theme song for Florida tourism anytime soon.)

The Mission Impossible theme is the same way, but it offers thrilling excitement. Do you want to pump yourself up? Try the theme from Rocky and go run some steps! Our minds are definitely programmable.

So how does this relate to your daily battle against lust? Watch enough sexually explicit movies and you'll begin to believe that everywhere guy meets girl from across a crowded room, they're bound to be tumbling into bed within 15 minutes. It becomes programmed into your mind.

And the next time a great looking woman innocently looks at you from across the room, your mind is headed to places it has no business being. Your muscle memory has been triggered!

You know that feeling, don't you? Most of us do. You need to carefully examine your life to identify your muscle memory triggers. While enticement is passive temptation, triggers are "repeated, expected temptations."

Let's face it. You've been there before and you know it was tempting. "In any battle between the will and the imagination, the will loses out every time," Billy Graham says. Ouch!

If imagination wins once the battle begins, how does a man live in a world full of triggers--from Hooters' billboards to Victoria's Secret commercials?

The first step is to identify the triggers in your life and root them out of your schedule, your eyesight and, eventually, your mind.

I think I can help you identify the triggers in your life. First, let's start by isolating the times when you are most vulnerable. Remember back to the last few times you struggled with extreme mental sexual temptation or maybe you actually fell and acted out.

Where did the downward slide begin? What were your muscle-memory triggers...the specific things that tempted you? Let me give you a few ideas:

Common Memory Triggers

Viewing movies with sexual humor or nudity
Surfing the Internet
Watching TV programs with sexual innuendoes
Browsing in a video store
Reading personal ads
Channel surfing the television late at night
Glancing through a Victoria's Secret catalog
Browsing through the magazines in a convenience store
Driving by an adult bookstore.

I've identified a few common triggers that I must avoid, and I've developed some guidelines that help increase my success rate.

My wife, Dannah, and I have decided not to go to R-rated movies with the exception of the occasional historic-focused films such as The Patriot or Saving Private Ryan. This is really hard for me because I love movies, particularly the intense action movies that are usually rated R.

In fact, we check out the reviews before we head to a PG-13 movie because even those can be over the edge sexually. As far as the Internet, I have a filter and won't surf the Net without it.

And I try to limit my TV time, but when I do watch, I know what it is I want to see. No channel surfing. (OK, I break this one a lot, but I'm trying my best. The remote control is my friend.)

These guidelines and a few others help me avoid my triggers.

"[Let] there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They've refused for so long to deal with God that they've lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can't think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion" (Eph. 4:17-19, The Message).

Eliminating triggers is like establishing a weed-free lawn. Every weekend lawn warrior knows the best way to keep dandelions out of the yard is to eliminate them by the root and by establishing a perimeter outside the yard. I've seen so many immaculate yards with dandelions all around the edges because the seeds from the neighbor's yard blew into their own.

How important is avoiding triggers? Not only does stepping out of the crowd and the culture eliminate the planting of those desires, but it also helps you to avoid becoming chemically addicted to the sexual response created by superficial lures.

It's a fact that the brain releases chemicals when stimulated sexually. One of the chemicals released is called epinephrine. Here's the big catch: It runs through the bloodstream and returns to the brain to lock the vivid memory of that experience into your mind. Your brain recalls a rush associated with that memory, and it craves more like it.

This chemical release of sex is great, and when it is between a husband and wife, it is healthy and satisfying. When it is caused by sexual sin, it causes such a rush that we find ourselves running back for more. Each time we expose ourselves to the rush it is like "shooting up" our mind. Mark Laaser, a nationally recognized specialist on sexual addictions, says, "Given the chemical changes it creates, sex-fantasy addicts are, in reality, drug addicts."

"Whoa!" you might be saying. "I'm no addict!" I hope that is true. And I am guessing that for most of you, it is true. But now that you see how it works, do you really want to risk it by exposing yourself to the things that trigger your muscle memory? Every act of fantasy can cause an adrenaline rush that leads to another that leads to another that leads to another.

In your life, establish solid boundaries so that casual contact doesn't allow seeds of future temptation to be planted. It's easier to control your sexual muscle memory when you're separated from the triggers.

Expose yourself to fun family events, and television and movies that depict healthy relationships. Choosing these will build up healthy appetites instead of insatiable hungers.

Portia Nelson writes this in Autobiography in Five Short Chapters:

Chapter 1

I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost...I am hopeless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter 2

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place.
But...it isn't my fault.

Chapter 3

I walk down the same street
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in. It's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

Chapter 4

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter 5

I walk down another street.

Let your wife be your Hooters girl! As for me, I'm a Christian guy who won't drive by Hooters because I can't. I'll take another street, thank you.

By Bob Gresh, author of Who Moved the Goalpost: Seven Winning Strategies in the Sexual Integrity Game Plan (Moody Press), written for teen boys and their dads. Visit his Web site at purefreedom.org.

There's a Hooters in my town, and I struggle each time I pass by. I can hardly see in. It's at a busy corner at the entrance of town and so unless I slow down to a crawl, I can't really distinguish much except the colors of the football uniforms on the big screen televisions hanging above the bar.