Hidden Dangers

Recently, my companion and I had a rather scar experience: we are serving in South Phoenix, and one morning for our daily exercise, we decided to climb South Mountain to watch the sunrise. We got up and quickly climbed to the peak of the mountain. We still had a few minutes before sunrise, and so we decided to start taking some fun photos. But, after a few minutes, my companion yelled and told me what he saw on a nearby rock. With horror, I saw, extremely close to us, a nasty rattlesnake! We were pretty scared. At least I was. All the time we were there, we did not realize that this danger was present. It would have been very easy to accidentally get too close, and got a not-so-friendly bite. We were lucky, and I am sure that God blessed us with safety that morning.

I feel that life, in many ways, is very similar. Sometimes we think that nothing we do has any danger. Then we later find out that it wasn’t the best choice. Other times, we tell ourselves there is no danger, even when we know that it’s there. That mountain experience made me think about the importance of always keeping away from spiritual dangers. A lot of times they are there and hidden, waiting to trap us and harm us. We cannot ignore the circumstances in which we find ourselves. If a situation is spiritually dangerous, we need to leave. And sometimes, we do make mistakes. We are human. It’s what we do. And it’s for that reason that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to the earth and suffered for the sins of the world. He made repentance possible. To repent is good, but life is easier and happier when we avoid dangerous situations, and we don’t have to repent. To be able to avoid such situations, and to recognize them when we find them, we should always be striving to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We should always develop our faith, repent, prepare to renew baptismal covenants and live worthy of the Gift of the Holy Ghost. To help with that, God has given us the commandments to pray daily, study the scriptures daily, and attend church and partake of the Sacrament weekly. Obeying these commandments gives us spiritual strength and power. God blesses us when we obey His commandments, and He wants us to be safe from physical and spiritual danger. I know that God lives, that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world, and that even though there will always be hidden dangers in the world, living the Gospel of Jesus Christ will help to keep us safe.