Monday, September 2, 2013

2 Nephi 28:8

"And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God."
2 Nephi 28:8


Self-justification.  We're all familiar with the concept, I'm sure. :)  So easy to talk ourselves into "little" sins... thinking that oh, God will be okay with this, or that other thing... they weren't big sins.  He'll understand.  And, you know... God totally *comprehends* why we do things like that.  He understands on that level, but here, and elsewhere in the scriptures (D&C 1:31) he makes it very clear that he doesn't understand in any "that's okay" or "I agree" sense.  We deceive ourselves when we think that God will be complicit in our sins to *any* degree.
I think that this is one of those pits we fall into when we forget that life isn't about a scoreboard or graded on a curve.  It doesn't matter ... at all... whether the people around us are sinning or behaving perfectly.  Our actions are still *our* choice and our responsibility.  And even that isn't the real point.  The real point is who we are turning ourselves into.  Every choice we make brings us closer to that end result... and even if we can hide who that is from other people, God knows... and so do we, if we stop to think.  The picture of Dorian Gray is there in front of us, and God, on display all the time.  He sees what we are becoming on the inside.  Instead of trying to get God to let us off the hook for little things, let's think about what those little things are doing to us.  Are we letting more and more things slip until they become big things?  Are we learning integrity, honesty, love?  Little things add up, and in total, they sum up who we will become.  Today, let's take a look in the mirror, at least spiritually, and see how we're shaping up... and if we don't like it, let's start changing some of those little things and get ourselves pointed in the right direction.

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