Often times we talk about things not to do…
Like “Don’t swear” or “Don’t listen to bad music.” But in addition to avoiding the bad, good habits are important to develop also. Why?
Let’s look at tooth decay to illustrate.
Yikes! Tooth decay isn’t pretty. How does one prevent it? Normally by brushing and flossing regularly. But what happens if one slips out of the habit of brushing and flossing? The tooth decay grows and over time becomes progressively worse. Simple good habits like brushing and flossing help prevent tooth decay.
Similarly, simple good habits like sincere prayer and scripture study help prevent spiritual tooth decay.
Chief Captain Moroni understood this principle. In Alma 59:9 we read, “(Book of Mormon | Alma 59:9)
And now as Moroni had supposed that there should be men sent to the city of Nephihah, to the assistance of the people to maintain that city, and knowing that it was easier to keep the city from falling into the hands of the Lamanites than to retake it from them, he supposed that they would easily maintain that city.”
What’s happening here? Moroni’s men had worked hard to capture a city, but rather than maintain the city, they lost it. Now they would have to recapture it. The point is, it would have been much easier just to maintain the city than to have to recapture it.
Good habits help us to maintain our spirituality rather than losing ground and trying to retake it. In addition, it’s much easier to maintain good habits, than to fall out of those habits and try to regain them again.
Is there a good habit you or I could be strengthening?
This is true. I had to kinda learn this the hard way. I did not have bad habits like swearing or listening to music that send the spirit away but i did have other bad habits that just over time didnt benefit me. I also had good habits like praying daily in the morning and night and all the time. Yet i didnt have the habit of reading the scriptures. Avoiding to have this good habit and having a bad habit in the end lead me to not be strong enough to choose the right. So now I am not doing the bad habit and am doing the good habits of praying and reading the scriptures. I can already see the change in my life. I am much stronger against temptation and i can choose the right without regret. Boy i’m so glad i have the gospel in my life.
I believe that once the decay is started that as it grows it will infect everything and everyone around it. The only way is to avoid the cavity or to remove the disease or to remove the tooth!
Nephi tells us that we should “feast upon the words of Christ.” To feast upon something is to do more than take a taste or a sip. It is to do more than simply sit down to a meal, picking at our food, eating what we will, knowing that another meal will follow in a few hours. No, a feast is something grander. It is done in celebration or commemoration of some great event. There is a richness in this word, equal only to the quality and quantity of the repast laid before us.
And what has been laid before us, when we do as Nephi asked and feast upon Christ’s words? He tells us plainly, so that there can be no doubt: “the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.” How often have we walked through our days, choosing one path over another, and then looked back and thought, “If only someone would have told me what to do.” And yet, here we have the counsel of Nephi, telling us just where to find those answers.
As the end of days draw nearer, we must rely more and more upon the Scriptures. Just as a feast of plenty does, they fill us up, they leave us feeling satisfied, they sustain us and they strengthen us. In this ever changing world of chaos, there will come times when all that we have is the Scriptures. If we do not fill ourselves up now, by feasting daily upon the words of Christ, we risk not having the faith, the wisdom, the strength or the will to recognize what is right and then act upon it, when it is required of us.
And so, it is my prayer and daily goal to diligently read and study the words of Christ brought forth by apostles and prophets of the past, which are found within the sacred pages of the Book of Mormon, the Holy Bible, the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants. In so doing it is, then, my further hope to be prepared for and receptive to continuing revelation as our Father in Heaven brings us back home to Him, guiding us through the words of the Savior, as passed down to us from the apostles and prophets, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Reference: 2 Nephi 32:3