"Behold, I give unto you a commandment, that ye suffer none of these things to enter into your heart;
For it is better that ye should deny yourselves of these things, wherein ye will take up your cross, than that ye should be cast into hell."
3 Nephi 12:29-30
This scripture is talking about looking on women lustfully... but I think it also applies to a lot of other things as well. You know, like lusting after that donut. :) ... or Raspberry Mochachinos, or that cool car or super-fast laptop that you want SO, SO much, but definitely can't afford. ... and, really, that is the point. We can't afford to look at things, and think about things, and ponder things, and try to justify thing that we shouldn't have. ... Thinking is at least half, and probably more like MOST of doing. Thinking about it, in almost all cases, is the precursor to doing it. Yesterday, in fact... I was sitting at my desk, all innocent. Doing my work even, not playing on the Internet or anything... and I started thinking about the vending machine in the break room. Yikes. ... ate some fruit leather. Drank some water... then "vending machine" again... more fruit leather, more water... unfortunately I ran out of fruit leather around 2:00. ... so, yeah, I ended up getting some Cheetos. See?? Those thoughts. So, today, I am going to stop those Cheetos thoughts before they get anywhere... and I urge you to do the same. I know, I'm joking around about it, but in many ways, this is deadly serious. We like to play mental games with ourselves sometimes, and we think... oh, it is okay to think about it and enjoy the thought... we won't actually DO it... but the point here is, ... yes we will. We need to stop it when it is still in the thought stage, and not risk serious sin, or serious financial consequences, or whatever it is. As the scripture says, it IS better to deny ourselves sometimes, no matter how compelling the thoughts... rather than be cast into hell... including financial or guilt-trip hell, but even more so for the REAL Hell. Let's work on avoiding those thoughts with bad consequences today, okay? :)
For it is better that ye should deny yourselves of these things, wherein ye will take up your cross, than that ye should be cast into hell."
3 Nephi 12:29-30
This scripture is talking about looking on women lustfully... but I think it also applies to a lot of other things as well. You know, like lusting after that donut. :) ... or Raspberry Mochachinos, or that cool car or super-fast laptop that you want SO, SO much, but definitely can't afford. ... and, really, that is the point. We can't afford to look at things, and think about things, and ponder things, and try to justify thing that we shouldn't have. ... Thinking is at least half, and probably more like MOST of doing. Thinking about it, in almost all cases, is the precursor to doing it. Yesterday, in fact... I was sitting at my desk, all innocent. Doing my work even, not playing on the Internet or anything... and I started thinking about the vending machine in the break room. Yikes. ... ate some fruit leather. Drank some water... then "vending machine" again... more fruit leather, more water... unfortunately I ran out of fruit leather around 2:00. ... so, yeah, I ended up getting some Cheetos. See?? Those thoughts. So, today, I am going to stop those Cheetos thoughts before they get anywhere... and I urge you to do the same. I know, I'm joking around about it, but in many ways, this is deadly serious. We like to play mental games with ourselves sometimes, and we think... oh, it is okay to think about it and enjoy the thought... we won't actually DO it... but the point here is, ... yes we will. We need to stop it when it is still in the thought stage, and not risk serious sin, or serious financial consequences, or whatever it is. As the scripture says, it IS better to deny ourselves sometimes, no matter how compelling the thoughts... rather than be cast into hell... including financial or guilt-trip hell, but even more so for the REAL Hell. Let's work on avoiding those thoughts with bad consequences today, okay? :)
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