Alma 39:9

"Now my son, I would that ye should repent and forsake your sins, and go no more after the lusts of your eyes, but cross yourself in all these things; for except ye do this ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.  Oh remember, and take it upon you, and cross yourself in these things."
Alma 39:9


Last night I was cleaning my room (okay, okay, get up off the floor and try to suspend your disbelief a little) and I found this bizarre conglomeration of sticky notes all stuck together.  On one is the definition of the word "zeugma" and some attempts at it by me... "twisting the knife and the doorknob..." etc. and the overall theme is that most of them have something about some bizarre attempt that I made at designing a better work calendar with more holidays and 5-day weeks... psycho, eh?  Anyway, also written on one of these sticky notes was the reference to this scripture... so, here it is, since I have been thinking about it.  My first question is, what does crossing yourself mean?  I mean, obviously the Catholic church, and maybe others, I don't know, have made it into a ritual... but that isn't what God means here, right?  So, I looked up the cross-reference (3 Nephi 12:30) which says that it is better to deny yourself something than to go to hell... so, I guess that taking up your cross is emulating Christ in a way... even though he didn't really want to drink the bitter cup... he did.  It was hard, but he did the right thing... so I guess it is just making sure that God's priorities are in line before ours.
The Kingdom of God is cool beyond our power to imagine... and even though it is easy to focus on the immediate, and the things that are easier to grasp in the short-term... it is worth working for, worth fighting for (in a purely spiritual / emotional and non acceptance of warlike tendencies type way), worth living for.