"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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