Friday, January 23, 2009

Satan's War

2 Nephi 32:8-9
"And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.
But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul."

As I was reading Ben's blog (Ben is the husband of one of my cousins) I came across this quote given by the church:

Despite its popularity with some, much of today’s television entertainment shows an unhealthy preoccupation with sex, coarse humor and foul language. Big Love, like so much other television programming, is essentially lazy and indulgent entertainment that does nothing for our society and will never nourish great minds. Parents who are casual about their viewing habits ought not to be surprised if teaching moral choices and civic values to their children becomes harder as a result.For that reason and others, Church leaders have consistently cautioned against such entertainment, joining with other religious, education and government leaders in inviting individuals and families to follow a higher road of decency, self-discipline and integrity.
I have long had very similar thoughts.  And obviously you can say that same thing about a lot more "tv programming" than just the show 'Big Love.'  But what the church says here is undoubtedly true.  There are many things in life that can be either a positive OR a negative influence.  There are only 2 influences in life, a positive or a negative, there is no middle ground, ever.  And that has to do with far more than just the entertainment industry.  

Just like the scripture I opened with states, "for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray."  You either pray, or you don't.  There is no middle ground to prayer, you either do it or you don't.  Doing it is a positive thing, not doing it is a negative thing.  The way in which we use the technology at our hand is much, if not exactly, the same way.  

What type of music do we listen to?  When we listen to things that don't uplift us, why?
What type of television shows do we allow ourselves to watch?  Why?
What type of movies do we watch?  What are our movie standards? 
When we get on the internet, where do we let ourselves idly browse?
Do we listen to the words of the prophets, or do we just hear them?
Do we take notes in church/institute/seminary?  Why or why not?
What jokes do we find funny?  What does laughing at a crude joke really say about our character?
When we read the scriptures, are we more focused on story line or on subject matter?
Do we feast on them and dissect them and cross reference them? Or do we read them like we would a magazine?
When we get angry, what words do we think but don't say?  Why do we allow our thoughts to betray us?

In every single example here, there is zero middle ground.  There is either positive OR negative. No shades of grey, no room for compromise.  I'd wager that in pre-mortal life, we never had to struggle with any of this.  This is a mortal battle we are fighting, and one that will wage on until Christ comes again.  We can't risk letting our guard down, even for a moment.  

Could you imagine the feeling of pain and regret if you found yourself looking at something vile and degrading on the television, and then at that moment received a call to use the very priesthood that you have to benefit the life of another person?  How painful would that be?  

We are here to serve eachother and to help eachother along the path towards exaltation.  What is the point of this life if we are UNABLE to help?  If we don't take care of our own thoughts, words, deeds, how can we be expected to lift another?  No one makes it to the Celestial Kingdom alone, how agonizing would it be to know that you were unable to help your brother or sister along that journey?  Christ could have come to the earth, live a perfect life, and never performed a miracle.  His life still would have been perfect.  But his selfless acts of love, his miracles, his teachings and admonishings, those were his ways to lift us up.  Those were his ways to facilitate the progress of those around him (and all of mankind) towards the Father's presence.  What is our legacy going to be?  What are we going to do to help those around us.  If we don't take care of our personal worthiness, the answer is, unfortunately, nothing.

The Lord asks us to help His children on His own timetable.  If we pick and choose when we are available to help those around us, we are telling God that our timetable is better than His.  If we aren't ready when we are called, we may as well not have been called to do the work.

There is no middle ground, there is only positive or negative.  Don't get caught on the decline when you're needed in an uphill battle.

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