"The one raised to happiness according to his desires of happiness, or good according to his desires of good; and the other to evil according to his desires of evil; for as he has desired to do evil all the day long even so shall he have his reward of evil when the night cometh."
Alma 41:5
This is talking basically about judgement and what comes after for all of us. I think it is interesting, because I don't think any of us, at least at first, consciously choose evil. We might get evil confused with good, or we might think something isn't evil enough to matter long term because we'll go right back to doing good after... or whatever it is. But then we convince ourselves slowly ... we play with the idea in our minds, or we adopt it as part of our self-image. And we get addicted to the drama or the familiarity or whatever it is, and then... it becomes what we want, and we want it more than what is good... and we trap ourselves through that initial lie, and by allowing it to grow in our minds. And some of those traps are easier than others to escape from, so maybe we know what to watch out for in one area, but are tempted in other areas. And sometimes we're still thinking... oh, yeah, well it's bad, we'll solve that problem later. But later never comes.
Today, let's take a good hard look at our lives and what we are choosing. Is what we think about each day good? Are the things that motivate us the things that we want to have forever, or are they just temporary things that we're planning on getting rid of? Because when the end comes, we're going to be rewarded according to what we want and what we work for ... and there won't be any more time to change our minds, and our hearts. We're going to get what we want. ... So, let's be very, very, very sure that we actually want whatever it is more than we want God.
... And if by chance we realize that we do want God more, then let's start rooting that evil out of our minds and our hearts. God will help us to change, if we ask him. And then we'll still get what we want. But maybe we'll have learned to want better. :)
Alma 41:5
This is talking basically about judgement and what comes after for all of us. I think it is interesting, because I don't think any of us, at least at first, consciously choose evil. We might get evil confused with good, or we might think something isn't evil enough to matter long term because we'll go right back to doing good after... or whatever it is. But then we convince ourselves slowly ... we play with the idea in our minds, or we adopt it as part of our self-image. And we get addicted to the drama or the familiarity or whatever it is, and then... it becomes what we want, and we want it more than what is good... and we trap ourselves through that initial lie, and by allowing it to grow in our minds. And some of those traps are easier than others to escape from, so maybe we know what to watch out for in one area, but are tempted in other areas. And sometimes we're still thinking... oh, yeah, well it's bad, we'll solve that problem later. But later never comes.
Today, let's take a good hard look at our lives and what we are choosing. Is what we think about each day good? Are the things that motivate us the things that we want to have forever, or are they just temporary things that we're planning on getting rid of? Because when the end comes, we're going to be rewarded according to what we want and what we work for ... and there won't be any more time to change our minds, and our hearts. We're going to get what we want. ... So, let's be very, very, very sure that we actually want whatever it is more than we want God.
... And if by chance we realize that we do want God more, then let's start rooting that evil out of our minds and our hearts. God will help us to change, if we ask him. And then we'll still get what we want. But maybe we'll have learned to want better. :)
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