"Abide ye in the liberty wherewith ye are made free; entangle not yourselves in sin, but let your hands be clean, until the Lord comes."
Doctrine and Covenants 88:86
I wonder sometimes how much we give up our own freedom. God gives us freedom as a gift. He balances out the influences on us, enabling us to make choices without being overwhelmingly pulled in one direction or another. Without him there, protecting our free agency, we wouldn't have any. And yet, we throw it away at the slightest provocation, or pretend it isn't there... claiming that for whatever reason, we couldn't resist. :) So, today, maybe we should take a step back and remember Nephi. The Lord doesn't ask us anything, ever, without making sure that there is a way for us to accomplish what he asks. It might seem impossible in the moment that there is a way out of the hole that we've dug for ourselves, or that there is no going back from the bad choices that we've made. But there is a way... always. It might be a hard road, and painful, to pull ourselves out and untangle those knots in our souls. But we can do it. It is possible. And when we have, and when we know what it feels like to be clean again... on the outside of temptation, looking in... let's remember what it's like to be in chains of our own making like that. Let's stop considering the temptations, and walk away... give ourselves the chance to learn and grow so much more without limiting ourselves with sin or addictions/obsessions. Let's stay clean, and stay free... waiting on the Lord.
Sin becomes thorns in our path ... making it difficult to progress with worries, sadness, and unrighteous desires holding us down and distracting us from our goals and our happiness. When we're told to be optimistic (and do it), we enable our freedom to refocus on the important things in life as well as the glorious consequences.
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