Sabbath Day

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7 Jul 2013

You would think that the Sabbath Day is void of temptation, but that is not so. As it turns out, it is just another day to work at being holy and righteous. I find my Sundays very busy times. In fact, they are quite busy because of good works. Today for instance I was preparing my reports for the Elders Quorum, making sure the men's choir was organized and tending to other duties. I gave several people rides. And wouldn't you know, while I was writing this very entry I got a call to give a talk in church next week! Needless to say, by the time I got home, I was too exhausted to really think about doing much. You know what this means: idleness.

I find it funny that Sunday is often one of the toughest times for me. I know I will be alone. I know I will not have anyone watching me. The Lord's Day is one of the most difficult days to stay holy for someone with a secret, private addiction. It is a time people are spending with their families, resting, playing games, etc. For a bachelor like me, it means that nobody will be coming over. Nobody will be calling. Nobody will be bothering me. It is the truest test of faithfulness. How do I act when I know I am completely alone?

Temptation came the way it usually comes: the Internet. It's like my computer calls me saying, "Come, play with the Internet. You can look up pictures of clothed girls, you can just read the news, play some online games. Nothing too bad, just come over here and idly surf the Internet." Well, I know where that always leads. Today it was for me to look up pictures of the mermaids from the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I did look up some pictures. Luckily I was more interested in the names of the actors than in the pictures themselves. There was one which hinted at nudity, but wasn't quite there. I had to stop. I immediately closed the Internet.

Instead of running away and pacing around the house, I pulled out the little blue glass bead I had been carrying around today and admired it and the symbolism I assigned to it. Then I went on to the LDS Hastening the Work of Salvation site to find the talks from the recent leadership conference for my church. I found the videos they played during the conference and watched those--admittedly because I remembered there was a cute girl in one of them. Well, I enjoyed the pretty face, but the message in the video was way stronger than the selfish reason I opened the video. I couldn't help but watch the other video short as well as half of Elder Perry's talk. This completely freed my mind from the problem of temptation it was having earlier.

Thank goodness I had the resolve to do what was right today. I can't wait to have two beads in that jar tomorrow morning. I already suffered by taking one out. There is no need to do that again.