This Looks Like A Nice Place

My dad drives truck for a living.  When I was younger I went on a trip with him.  He happened to be going to Los Angeles, California.  I am sure that I annoyed him as I every 2 hours or so had to stop and go to the bathroom.  I'm sure he was more ready to be there than I was by the time we got to our destination.  As we drove into Los Angeles this is what I saw (the above picture).  I loved it.  I am from a small town and so this was something that I had never really seen before.  I couldn't help but love the sky-scrapers and beauty of all the buildings.  I said to my dad, "This is so cool!  Can we live here?  I really want to!"  My dad just chuckled.  He knew what the city was really like and what I was soon going to be seeing.  In not very long the scenery changed from beauty to something else.  This is what I was now seeing (well as close as I could find!) :

I didn't like what I was seeing now.  I immediately changed my mind from what I thought before.  I now, no longer wanted to live in Los Angeles.  I turned to my dad and told him never mind.  He laughed some more, a little harder this time.  I'm sure he figured that I would say that once we really got into the city.  

Satan does this to us sometimes, but by the time we get into the city it's hard to get out.  Just as there's tons of traffic in L.A. and it doesn't just take 2 seconds to turn around and get out of there.  Satan is deceptive and makes things look nice until we get into them.  Just as he makes us accept behavior that is far outside of what Heavenly Father wants for us.  We don't need to be deceived as we listen to the prophets and follow the counsel of our church leaders.  Let us all live where we truly want to and not where Satan has deceptively conned us into living.  

The Edge...

Our Heavenly Father gives us commandments to keep us safe, but the choice is ours to obey or not.  I know that our Heavenly Father doesn't give us commandments to limit our choices but to expand them.  When we don't pay attention to the commandments we sometimes get very close to the edge.  We leave the "safe" area that our Heavenly Father has told us to stay in and we go into the "dangerous" territory that Satan is in charge of.  At first it may seem a little uncomfortable to be at a party with alcohol, or to watch an R rated movie, but over time we become used to the danger of being on the edge.  The danger in breaking commandments never leaves.  Just because we feel comfortable there doesn't mean that the danger has left.  I don't typically go sit on the edge of cliffs, and in this picture I certainly wasn't comfortable.  I would have felt much better if I would have been at least 10 feet farther away from the edge.  I decided, however, that the fear was worth it and I wanted this picture, so I went and put myself in danger to get a cool picture.  How many times in life do we get close to the edge for the sake of looking cool, or to impress a girl/guy, or to rebel against our parents council, or any other reason?  I can think of so many times that people get close to the edge for no reason really at all.  Sometimes we get so comfortable on the edge that the fall doesn't even seem scary.  I know that living life on the edge and in the "danger zone" isn't all it's cracked up to be.  Satan wants us to believe this, but I know differently.  Our Heavenly Father desires true happiness for us and lovingly gives us commandments to keep us safe and happy.  When we follow his council and obey his commandments we are safe from sin and happy as ever.  Don't live your life on the edge.  Take a step back and realize the peace that comes from keeping the commandments.