Alma 34:33-34 -- On Procrastination and Repentance

"And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world."

Alma 34:33-34

We get so busy with life sometimes that we put things off.  Sometimes the things don't matter, and sometimes they do... and sometimes they don't seem to matter until we hit a crisis.  For instance, all that laundry procrastination seems minor until we hit the "no clean underwear" crisis... and then, it has to be time to solve the problem.  Putting it off just one more time isn't going to work anymore.

We do this, unfortunately, with sin as well.  We know we need to clean up our lives, but we're busy, and there is so much else, and it seems minor.  We're sure we'll have the time and motivation to take care of it later.  But what we don't realize, or try to block out, is that every decision we make not only reinforces and exacerbates the problem (the pile of laundry gets bigger and bigger), but it also slowly turns us into people who don't really want to clean up our lives anymore.  And so when the crisis comes, as it always does, it can turn out to be too late.  We've broken the washer, transportation is nil, and we don't have time anymore to have new clothes shipped.  We're stuck with who we've chosen to become, and honestly, it's pretty smelly.

Before we get to that point, let's take some forethought.  Let's remember that the crisis will come if we don't do something about it.  Let's clean up our lives... not just washing the clothes and avoiding becoming smelly, but let's wash ourselves from sin through taking advantage of Christ's atonement and learning to repent.  Not just once on our deathbeds, but continually so that we keep improving, avoiding past mistakes, and preparing for eternity.  Let's procrastinate less, especially spiritually, and become more than we are... while we still have the opportunity.