Sunday, May 20, 2007

Get Your Hairy Body Behind Me, Distraction!

I guess May is going to be a month of "Look At Your Life, Tristi!" church lessons. Hey, that's fabulous! Every time I look at my life, I learn a whole lot in the process. It's not always pretty, but it's educational.

Today we were talking about temptation and how it comes from a very real source. We also discussed how a good person won't immediately succumb to a large sin right off the bat, but the adversary will sneak in a little at a time with little tiny sins, and once he gets us to partake of those, he can then start tempting us with larger things. This put me right in mind of a quote from Neil A. Maxwell, who said something along the lines of, (and I paraphrase) one of Satan's biggest tools is distraction. If he can get us too busy doing good things to do the great things, then he can keep us distracted from really accomplishing those things we're supposed to be accomplishing. Oh, boy, does that hit home for me!

I'm one of those that gets distracted by doing good things. I'll have a to-do list, and at the end of the day, find that only half of it got done because I was so busy doing good somewhere else. And I'll find that I didn't get my scriptures read or my prayers said because I was so busy doing laundry and reading to my kids. It's not that laundry and reading aren't good -- they're excellent. But if I'm not attending to my spiritual growth, the rest isn't as important.

So that's my goal for this week -- to concentrate on getting the most important things done, and to stop getting distracted. I know it's easier blogged than done. I'll let you know how it goes.

3 comments:

Karen said...

Thank you for your encouraging and uplifting comment! I agree with you about the fear thing. I also enjoyed your post today! Distraction is a huge part of our everyday lives, and I had no idea how powerful it can be. Very good post!

Marcia Mickelson said...

I can relate to being distracted. That happens to me. I will go into another room to get something and find five other things to do on the way. When I get there, I forgot what I came for. I start emptying the dishwasher in the morning and get so distracted by other things, that I don't end up finishing until the kids have gone to bed.

Unknown said...

Tristi, I was delighted to see you had visited my blog. Thanks for the encouraging words on my journey to lose a few pounds.

I loved this post. You are so right, Satan is really good at taking us away from our focus. He is also a great deceiver, pretending to be the good guy or the right choice. We sure do have to stay on our toes to be one step ahead.

Thanks for sharing these thoughts. I have not gotten any further in your blog but I am heading that way now.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...