Warnings in the way the Nephites’ wickedness progressed

In these verses, Mormon chronicles the Nephites’ descent from great order to great lawlessness from the 27^th year to the 30^th year after the sign is given of Christ’s birth. It starts with pride, persecution, and inequality. Then we get this:

15 Now the cause of this iniquity of the people was this—Satan had great power, unto the stirring up of the people to do all manner of iniquity, and to the puffing them up with pride, tempting them to seek for power, and authority, and riches, and the vain things of the world.

16 And thus Satan did lead away the hearts of the people to do all manner of iniquity; therefore they had enjoyed peace but a few years.

17 And thus, in the commencement of the thirtieth year—the people having been delivered up for the space of a long time to be carried about by the temptations of the devil whithersoever he desired to carry them, and to do whatsoever iniquity he desired they should—and thus in the commencement of this, the thirtieth year, they were in a state of awful wickedness. (3 Nephi 6:15-17)

I notice there are three statements about what Satan does and how the people respond.

Satan stirred people up. It’s a very interesting image there of a pot of liquid that is stirred. It is as though people would be calm and content if left alone, but then Satan stirs them up to do iniquity, trying to convince them they are not happy as they are, that the need power, authority, riches, and vain things of the world.

Satan did lead away the hearts of the people. This idea of leading away hearts is another interesting image. It tells us that Satan managed to engage people’s affections and desires in the iniquity they were doing. That’s very troubling because emotions are very powerful. When one want to do iniquity and don’t want to do good, then doing good starts to feel very unpleasant, like one fights with oneself to do it, and it isn’t very enjoyable.

The people were delivered up…to be carried about by the temptations of the devil. This image of delivering people (like a package) and being carried about, almost like a baby, is pretty sickening. It makes it sound like the people have no choice in the matter, like something made them sin. But the reality is that they simply gave up the fight. They gave up fighting temptation and decided to do whatever they wanted, even though it broke the commandments. The reality was, it was actually what Satan wanted, so they essentially yielded their agency.

Now, sad as it is to read about this, I think it gives us some important warnings for our own lives. It tells us to be alert to notice when we are being stirred up or when our hearts are being led away toward evil or when it seems like we’re just being carried about without our choice. Half the battle is realizing we are in the predicament, discerning the devil’s machinations in our lives.

I’ve recently felt like I’m being stirred up with agitation, frustration, desperation, and anxiety. My head knows that I’m in a place where I’m being asked to grow in a number of different directions at once, that I have to exercise patience, that I have to buckle down and get to work. I’m in a place of stretching, but all the same, it is very difficult because of the strong emotions that are pulling me back and forth, this way and that. It makes it hard to concentrate.

The only way to make it through is to yield my heart to God, to resolve to do His will, no matter what my lying feelings shriek at me. I must trust that each day my righteous efforts will bring me closer to Him.

The Holy Spirit is like the wind?

I’ve always been puzzled by the following scripture:

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
(John 3:8)

I would think to myself, “I’m don’t feel like the wind.” I get the feeling that this scripture means something about being impulsive somehow, but I wasn’t sure until I went to a fireside at which Sister Okasaki was speaking. (Such a sweet lady!)

She explained this scripture to mean that when we get a prompting we often don’t quite know where it comes from and we don’t know what will come of it, so we just have to follow it and trust God.

Is self-restraint possible? If so, what do I do for fun?

I am a very impulsive person. Attention Deficit Disorder makes it worse. (Oh, look, there's a butterfly!) I'm thankful that Heavenly Father has provided various medicines that help, but even so, I know I still have to learn self control and restraint.

One thing I've thought about and struggled with over the years has been this idea of getting myself to not do things I know are bad even when I really want to do them anyway, and getting myself to do things that I know are good when I'd much rather not. (It's easy to say no to a great many evils and yes to a great many goods just after church when the enthusiasm of the gospel is still upon me, but it is harder toward the middle and end of the week.)

At one point I was reading "Teachings of Presidents of the Church: David O McKay" when I ran across this one little section that ended up changing my life:

May we realize as never before that mastery of one's personal inclinations is the heart of the Christian religion and of all religions. By nature the individual is selfish and inclined to follow his immediate impulses. It requires religion, or something higher than an individual or even a society of individuals, to overcome the selfish impulses of the natural man... (p86)

This idea that "mastery over our personal inclinations is at the heart of religion" sunk deep into my heart and I could see that if it was so, then mastery of my inclinations was actually possible. The idea was very exciting to me. The extent of my previous efforts to master myself extended to grabbing hold of every wave of impulse to do good that I could while it was still upon me and surfing it to its conclusion, or trying to anchor myself down when those bad waves came upon me in hopes that I wouldn't get tossed around too much. Do you see? I was just trying to cope with the impulses I had, not trying to control them.

But the idea of mastery! A master says, "Do this!" and the servant does it. The master says "Don't do that!" and the servant doesn't do it. If it was true that my impulses could serve me, instead of the other way around, then by golly any good work was possible for me to do, because sooner or later I would be able to master my impulses and inclinations and want to do it!

What I wanted was nothing less than the ability to change my desires. Have you ever tried to change what you want when you want something? It's dang hard! I knew at the outset that this was not something I could do myself. I thought, Heavenly Father always wants what it is good. If only I could have His desires somehow planted in me. I don't want my desires any more. I prayed about it. I asked Heavenly Father to help me want what HE wanted me to want.

Of course the natural woman wasn't going to let go without a fight. Part of me wondered, If I suddenly want what Heavenly Father wants, will I still be able to have fun? The answer came to me that if my nature was purified so that it wanted what Heavenly Father wanted, then my sense of fun would be purified too, and I'd enjoy doing those good things. My imagination did a loop-de-loop as I considered visiting teaching, temple work, family history work, missionary work, compassionate service all being transformed into something more enjoyable than duty.

I didn't change all at once. It sometimes seemed hard, especially when I was tired, but I discovered that I could still pray for the strength to do the things that I wanted to do that were good. That's when I really learned about The Grace of Christ. From the Bible Dictionary:

The main idea of the word is divine means of help or strength, given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ....through the grace of the Lord...individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means.

(This not the only part of grace, but you'll have to read the rest on your own.)

The changes are still happening. I've gotten to the stage where weekly temple work is not just fun, but a necessity. It took me a while (a few years) to work up sufficient curiosity about family history to take a class on it, and that turned out to be pretty fun too. I've noticed that things I thought were fun before seem not as good now. Some movies and music that I used to like grates a little on my sensibilities now.

I suspect that my experience is part of what the prophets and apostles talk about when they say that we have to become "converted". I used to wonder just what they meant when they said it is a gradual process rather than a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Now I know.