The Purge

I have been slowly working through my cluttered house sorting, culling, shredding, dispensing, and trashing things that have been occupying space for years now. It has been a hard thing, but I'm ready.

Today I did a huge thing for me. I was going through a box of my things (it is always easier to declutter someone else's stuff because there's no emotional attachment to it) and came upon the stack of lessons I gave in Relief Society when I was the fourth Sunday teacher - which means these are talks given by prophets and apostles with my thoughts and inspirations received while preparing the lessons. Two of my wants in my home have been shelves filled with books so my children could have good books at their disposal, and a file full of church material to aid mine and my family's gospel studies. These are great goals, but I have come to the realization that there are public libraries at our disposal and my children are more likely to search the Internet for the talks they are interested in reading and not my file that I keep locked in a room they aren't allowed to play in. So, as I looked at this stack of papers, I took a deep breath and put them in the recycling bin. Not my "to file" bin. In the recycling bin. They are purged.

Yesterday I was going to get a spoonful of ice cream just because I could. I had one of those moments where I felt this tiny decision was one which carried great weight. If I followed through with it, I would be would be one step closer to losing this battle over self and Satan would laugh his maniacal laugh. But if I put the spoon back and walk away, I would have strength and power.

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." ~Mosiah 3:19


"behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass;" ~Alma 37:6

"And because of the righteousness of his people, Satan has no power; wherefore, he cannot be loosed for the space of many years; for he hath no power over the hearts of the people, for they dwell in righteousness, and the Holy One of Israel reigneth." ~1 Nephi 22:26