1 John 2:15-17 -- On Focusing on Forever

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."
1 John 2:15-17


I was teaching the Primary kids in church today about one of the visions of the afterlife, so when I came across this later, it made me wonder about how things will be after we are resurrected. We know that there won't be temptations anymore, so the absence of lust and pride and other sinful emotion makes sense, but it also raises other questions about whether that all happens automatically from a physical change (like what happened to the three Nephites), or whether it is because we are now purer and thus above that. Have we graduated past emotion at that point? 

I don't think so, because God talks about having emotion in the scriptures, so perhaps is it that our souls and bodies are correctly fused together and there is no more threat of an imbalance and allowing our bodies to trump our spirits? ... I'm not sure, but it does seem kind of cool that such large things that sway our lives in so many ways just won't have any bearing in the next world, and maybe it is a good thing to ponder... if those things didn't exist, would our lives be any different? ... I feel like mine would be. Imagining myself without pride, for instance, I see someone who makes a lot less mistakes and starts a lot fewer arguments over my silly ego issues. :) ... And if we can see a difference without some aspect of sin, why not work for that now instead of waiting for the afterlife to rip it away? Maybe it won't hurt if we work to be whole without those things now.

Today, let's think about eternity and focus on the "forever" parts of our lives... the love of God and other people, learning and wisdom, self-improvement, and other good things that will last rather than allowing temporary and sinful emotion to rule our lives.