Things As They Really Are

Happy Sabbath Sisters!!

Can you believe that the summer is coming to a close?! Next week for most the school year will be starting! One of the great things that comes with a new School Year is new goals. Both individually and as family members. That is why I LOVED the topic that Ashlee prayerfully selected to teach on this month. It is a CES talk that was put in the July Ensign called, “Things as they really are” by Elder David Bednar.

This article focuses a lot on the internet and how it has potential to “lull us into carnal security” as is talked about in 2 Nephi 28:21 or basically Satan tactics work in such a clever way that before we even know it, we are wasting away our time on things that appear to be good, but are taking away the BEST parts of our lives; family time, teaching time, listening time, pondering time.

Some of the examples that we gave that are things that aren’t real (not necessarily are they bad, but if used out of balance, they can take away the BEST parts of our life that we mentioned above.)
• Blogging or Blog Stocking  Blogging is used for so many things and in my family I have seen our relationships grow stronger because people are better able to candidly speak their mind in a safe place. But this can also consume A LOT of your time. You could be so addicted to see what your friends are posting about their kids and “perfect lil families” that you are neglecting important things with you own.
• Games could also fall into this category. If you are constantly playing solitaire, bejeweled, Farmville, family feud or other games that you can play mindlessly by yourself, are you taking away from better things?
• Shopping could fall into this category. Are you going shopping cause your bored, or to fill a need fro retail therapy?
• Grooming. So you go to get a pedicure to ESCAPE a day of badly behaved kids or to get away with a best girlfriend or are you going to keep yourself in order?
• Movies, TV, Video game systems- are they the babysitters of your kids or are you? Do they take away quality CAR TALKING TIME from your kids cause it is just easier to have them on? Are you missing opportunities to teach, talk or giggle with your kids because these have become big distractions in your homes?
There are so many more things we could add to the list of things that have the potential to get us distracted from the real picture! From the REAL things that lead us back to our Father in Heaven, the eternal things. We all know what those are… prayer, family time, scripture study, teaching gospel principles through life experiences, bearing testimony through life experiences.

It all comes down to this. We are all susceptible to the cunning deceiving ways of Lucifer. He can slowly and creatively use GOOD things and make them things that distract us from being who we really are or seeing things and they REALLY are. Something that Elder Bednar said struck me:

 "The Lord KNOWS who WE really are, what WE really think, what WE really do, and who WE really are becoming”

 Because Satan was there with us in the war in Heaven, he too knows who we are, and what we are to become and that is why he tries his HARDEST to make GOOD things to become distractions and wedges in our family relationships and our relationships with our Father in Heaven!

One of the parts to this talk that REALLY stood out to me personally was this.

“Obedience opens the door to the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. And the spiritual gifts and abilities activated by the power of the Holy Ghost enable us to avoid deception—and to see, to feel, to know, to understand, and to remember things as they really are. You and I have been endowed with a greater capacity for obedience precisely for these reasons. Moroni declared:

“Hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him.

“Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God” (Mormon 9:27–28).

As we heed that inspired counsel, we can and will be blessed to recognize and repel the attacks of the adversary—today and in the days that lie ahead. We can and will fulfill our foreordained responsibilities and contribute to the work of the Lord in all the world.”

We all have weaknesses. We all have things that keep us just a little farther away from God. Things that we are constantly struggling on overcoming. We all have to take these times of the year to RE-EVALUATE where we stand in relationship to our journey home. Where we can make a small change or a course correction that will steer us closer to our eternal home and realign our compass yet again. It’s not hard to do, many of the things we need to change are there right within the walls of our OWN homes. Just small course corrections that can make HUGE differences on the lives of our family members.

“When a man makes war on his own weaknesses he engages in the holiest war that mortals ever wage. The reward that comes from victory in this struggle is the most enduring, most satisfying, and the most exquisite that man ever experiences…The power to do what we ought to so is the greatest freedom” – Bryant Hinckley , father of Gordon B. Hinckley ( That Ye Might Have Joy, p. 83)

Sisters, may we have the courage to evaluate how we are spending our “free time” both in our families and our individual lives and make sure we have the balance that we need to spiritually safeguard ourselves from the threatening of Satan. I am so thankful that we have Prophets, Seers and Revelators in our midst and that they know OUR day and know the things that we need to make it back to our eternal home. May we help, encourage and love each other through our journey home.