7-1-11 “He did deliver me from bondage”, p. 30, Day 6

7-1-11 “He did deliver me from bondage”, p. 30, Day 6

Mosiah 11:23

“And it shall come to pass that except this people repent and turn unto the Lord their God, they shall be brought into bondage; and none shall deliver them, except it be the Lord the Almighty God.”

                Day 6:

“When we are under the influence of any addiction, one way to describe our situation is to say that we are in bondage.  Is our addiction really the primary sin we need to repent of, or is it just a symptom?  According to Abinadi, what is the true root of sin?”

Wow, that is a really great point.  What is the root cause of my sin and bondage of anger?   

v. 1-2 says that Noah did not walk in the ways of his father, but sought to walk after the desires of his own heart.  Being a natural man, and not resisting that, he turned to carnal pleasures and worshiped the gods of this world:  Pleasure, Power, and Property.  That was the whole object of his desires, and all his time and money were used in pursuing them.  He placed his heart upon riches (v.14) and did not keep the first commandment to love the Lord thy God above all else.  His god was the man in the mirror.  This caused him to commit other sins which led him further into addiction and bondage of alcoholism and delighting in the shedding of blood, and boasting in his own strength.  Not only himself, but causing all his people should commit the same sins by his poor example and his flattering words.  Thus in bondage their eyes were blind, and they hardened their hearts (v.29).

So what is the root cause of my sin?  Surely pride is the root of all evil.  Thinking that I can do it on my own, or setting my desires above the will of God.  Pride is too all encompassing though.  What specific aspects of pride am I guilty of?  I was thinking yesterday about my false “need to control”.  I think this desire is a sin, and the root of my anger.  When I suggest, no tell, my husband what to do and he does not do it, I get angry.  This is the same desire that caused Lucifer to fall from heaven and seek his own will above the Father.  He wanted to control others and do things his own way so he could get the power and glory.  I have slowly been learning to stop telling him what to do.  The words “invite and allow” have been a repeated paramount lesson.

I realized yesterday during one of Teren’s temper tantrums that it is not my job to stop her from crying.  Sometimes I feel as the Mom that it is, or was.  I felt it was my job to comfort all the crying, but that is not completely my choice.  I can offer comfort, but it is her choice to cry.  I was also raised with the feeling that it’s not ok to cry or show bad feelings, so they have been bottled up inside me.  I see this in my distain for her temper tantrums.  I don’t like her exhibiting her frustration.  The truth I keep trying to remind myself of is the lesson I learned in Joy School from the unit on sharing feelings:  That it is ok to have all kinds of feelings because it means that we are working correctly.  When we feel angry inside, we have to find a safe way to get it all out- like a hot tea kettle.  If it did not get the steam out, it would explode.  They teach to hit pillows etc.  I’m not sure this has totally sunk into my acceptable way of behaving.  I need to find a way to allow.  What is my part? And what is theirs?