Light and Truth

During the morning of Saturday, February 29, 2020 I woke up rather excited about leap year day! But of course, with no plans of how to celebrate this unusual 'holiday', I proceeded the way I typically do on a normal day. After eating a good breakfast and feeding my young one-year-old son Aaron, we read the scriptures as a family, and I began my own personal study of the scriptures. Feeling the need to learn from the second book of Nephi in The Book of Mormon, I opened up to a chapter that I had long loved: chapter 28. As I read, I came upon a pair of verses that caught my attention in a way that had never previously occurred. "For the kingdom of the devil must shake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains, and they be stirred up to anger, and perish; For behold, at that day shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good."...

As a young boy, raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by righteous parents who provided a gospel-centered home, I remember coming to a conclusion that certainly reflected my very young mind. This conclusion was that, since I had learned the importance of avoiding addictive substances such as alcohol, smoking, drugs, pornography, and gambling, I would never experience any form of addiction in my life. While I successfully avoided everything I - at that time - thought could become an addiction, I eventually met with disappointment in my later teenage years and early 20's. Through various circumstances and choices that are far too complex for me to recall entirely, I found myself struggling so largely with God's commandment of honesty. While I knew it to be true, this knowledge had not yet grown large enough to translate directly into action. While I knew dishonesty was sin, it seemed as if no matter how oft I repented that I always cycled back around sooner ...