Teach your family Satan's strategies so they will be able to avoid the plays in his "game book" through Doctrine and Covenants section 10.
There were so many things that I wanted to teach out of this week's Come Follow Me Lesson.
Hyrum's lesson to "wait" in Section 11 was beautiful. As a family we are struggling with that right now. We are asking for a specific blessing that we feel will help our family, but the Lord has said to wait. So learning what to do while we wait and enjoy life in the meantime was especially important.
But I chose to go with Satan's playbook instead. Our kids are living in a time when evil is rampant. We need to teach them the things to look out for. We need to teach them how to avoid the temptations and rivers of sin that will come there way.
Attention Activity:
Collect two bowls with a figurine in each. You can use Lego figures, Funko pops, whatever you have that works.
Add sand to one bowl and a large rock in the other. Place the figurines on top.
Pour water into the bowl with sand and watch the figure fall down.
Pour water into the bowl with the rock and watch the figure stand tall.
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| Photo by Jonathan Borba |
Lesson:
If you were getting ready to play a game...would you want to know all the ways your opponent will act and try to win? Would you like to see his play book with all his tricks and tips?
Section 10 in the Doctrine and Covenants give us a playbook against our most vicious and challenging adversary--Satan.
"Life on earth is a little like being behind enemy lines, full of land mines, and in the dark with an enemy shouting at you what to do. In that circumstance wouldn't you want all the heavenly protection, intelligence on the enemy, light and power that you can access?" (Maurine Proctor)
The war in heaven wasn't a one time war...we are still fighting it daily. And while we have had a veil drawn over our memories, Satan hasn't. He knows you. He remembers you. And he customizes his attacks perfectly to you.
The war in heaven was fought with weapons of testimony. That is what Satan is trying to destroy. Our hearts and our testimonies. He wants to destroy all good things.
"..we need to put forth a consistent, positive effort every day in order to remain in safe waters. We need to develop good habits that can replace old, bad ones. Satan desires that we become lazy and complacent. Daily scripture study and prayer, service, repentance, and following the promptings of the Holy Ghost can keep us safely in the spiritual waters of the Lord." (Victor D. Cave)
One of Satan's plays is an invitation to our natural man. He wants us to be too busy, too lazy, too envious of others to do good. He wants us to be thinking about ourselves and what we want instead of constantly reading the scriptures and doing good.
He wants us to not know the words of God and the words of the prophets. so that he can get into our hearts and "wrest" the scriptures and our actions to fit his schemes. We have to be strong and vigilant to not let others twist the truth, to lie to us , and tempt us into doing things we shouldn't be doing. Things that will drag us down into addiction, punishment, and harsh consequences.
"A cunning part of Satan's strategy is to dissociate anger from agency, making us believe that we are victims of an emotion that we cannot control." (Lynn G Robbins)
It seems there is so much anger around us these days. Our world is full of it. Our country is full of it. Our cities are full of it. And sometimes our families and our hearts our full of it.
One of Satan's primary weapons is to stir up our hearts in anger, hatred, pride and jealousy.
We may feel that someone has done us wrong...so we are justified to be angry with them. Or to hate them. Or to feel like we have the right to "get back at them." Because we feel that way, is it right?
"No one makes us mad. Others don't make us angry. There is no force involved. Becoming angry is a conscious choice, a decision; therefore, we can make the choice not to be come angry. We choose." (Lynn G Robbins)
We can choose whether to let ourselves get angry and let the "waters" of destruction destroy our house. Or we can choose to love and do good and keep ourselves on solid ground.
Through Doctrine and Covenants section 10 we can see the game play. But we can also see how to conquer Satan. How to win the game.
"Ye must watch and pray always, lest ye be tempted by the devil, and ye be led away captive by him...." (3 Nephi 18:15)
Prayer is our armor and our link to the general in battle.
When we only pray at night, or only at meal time...we are leaving ourselves open to the enemy. This is a bad battle plan. And it is a battle we are waging daily. We have to invite God in to our daily battle so we have His strength, His wisdom, and His courage to get through the daily challenges.
"Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." (Dieter F Uchtdorf)
We are all going to be tempted with things that could shake our faith. Satan knows us and knows our weaknesses.
We need to fix our eyes and our hearts on God to get through those times. Keep praying. Keep reading your scriptures. Keep doing good. The answers will come. Your faith will be restored because God also knows us. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows who wins the battle. And He knows how to help us if we keep our faith and keep moving forward.
God's wisdom is greater than Satan's. Like we can see with the 116 pages stolen from the Book of Mormon, God's plan can not be frustrated. He has a plan and will work with us to complete the plan and win the war.
Treat:
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| Photo by LDS Gospel Art Kit Lyrics by Blake Gillette |
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