Life: an unending stream of extenuating circumstances

Just had a thought today from my personal study. I used to think that pornography was my only problem and if I could JUST fix it then I would be a good person. Only later did I find out how much I needed to change, and that I couldn't pick and choose what to give over to God. I need to choose His will in all things, even in the seemingly harmless things. 

Because there are NO such thing as a decision to follow our own will over God's that is harmless. Sure, it may not seem it, but there is always an immediate consequence - compromised integrity. There is always a reason not to follow. Exceptions always come, or at least we can always think of one. Once we choose our will over God's in one thing, it becomes so much easier to do it in others. We are indeed creatures of habit. 

Anyway, got this from a talk from Pres. Monson in 2010 (I think). The story of the young man illustrates the point I was talking about above. 

"In closing may I share with you an example of one who determined early in life what his goals would be. I speak of Brother Clayton M. Christensen, a member of the Church who is a professor of business administration in the business school at Harvard University.

When he was 16 years old, Brother Christensen decided, among other things, that he would not play sports on Sunday. Years later, when he attended Oxford University in England, he played center on the basketball team. That year they had an undefeated season and went through to the British equivalent of what in the United States would be the NCAA basketball tournament.

They won their games fairly easily in the tournament, making it to the final four. It was then that Brother Christensen looked at the schedule and, to his absolute horror, saw that the final basketball game was scheduled to be played on a Sunday. He and the team had worked so hard to get where they were, and he was the starting center. He went to his coach with his dilemma. His coach was unsympathetic and told Brother Christensen he expected him to play in the game.

Prior to the final game, however, there was a semifinal game. Unfortunately, the backup center dislocated his shoulder, which increased the pressure on Brother Christensen to play in the final game. He went to his hotel room. He knelt down. He asked his Heavenly Father if it would be all right, just this once, if he played that game on Sunday. He said that before he had finished praying, he received the answer: “Clayton, what are you even asking me for? You know the answer.”

He went to his coach, telling him how sorry he was that he wouldn’t be playing in the final game. Then he went to the Sunday meetings in the local ward while his team played without him. He prayed mightily for their success. They did win.

That fateful, difficult decision was made more than 30 years ago. Brother Christensen has said that as time has passed, he considers it one of the most important decisions he ever made. It would have been very easy to have said, “You know, in general, keeping the Sabbath day holy is the right commandment, but in my particular extenuating circumstance, it’s okay, just this once, if I don’t do it.” However, he says his entire life has turned out to be an unending stream of extenuating circumstances, and had he crossed the line just that once, then the next time something came up that was so demanding and critical, it would have been so much easier to cross the line again. The lesson he learned is that it is easier to keep the commandments 100 percent of the time than it is 98 percent of the time."

I hope I can continue to make the right decisions in this unending stream of extenuating circumstances that is life.