In A Moment

Sometimes in life little circumstances occur that enlighten our understanding and teach us lessons. This week I've been working on organizing my pictures, and writing our family story. I noticed that my computer somehow had saved two sets of pictures. Two sets for every picture I had ever taken all the way back to 2001. I spent 5 hours organizing one set of pictures, and then when I was completely finished with my organization, I decided to delete the extra picture folder. I checked and double checked, and then pushed delete. Within seconds my picture folder was wiped clean. Not just one folder, but both folders. I hadn't realized that the picture folders were within the same folder, so rather than deleting the extra folder, I somehow deleted all of my pictures. Thankfully, my pictures were not lost forever—they were saved on my external hard drive; however, the time I had just spent into organizing my pictures was lost. In one second I was able to delete hours of work that would take me hours to rebuild. In fact, I spent the following day rebuilding my organization and ten hours later—I was still not finished.  As I thought about this scenario, I made a parallel to our lives. Many of our bad decisions in life can be done in a moment; however, the process of repenting isn't always so easy.  In 3 Nephi 18:15 it says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always lest ye be tempted by the devil, and be led away captive by him.” I truly believe that we are in a war with Satan. He is good at what he does. If we are not actively working at choosing the right, and seeking Heavenly Father, then I think those moments of "bad decision making" can catch us off guard. My husband has often said to my children, “Don’t trade what you want most, for what you want right now”. Our ultimate goal is eternal life; however, it is easy to lose sight of this goal in the midst of our day to day struggles. Thankfully, the Savior has died for us, and has made a way for us to return from our moments of bad decision making. The small moments, and the big moments—for we all need the Savior. We are not meant to be perfect—not yet anyway.  But each of us can choose whether or not we trade our ultimate happiness for a moment of what we think to be happiness. I have moments every day in which I need the atonement of the Savior. I am truly grateful that He has provided a way for me to repent.