“We cannot allow ourselves the slightest bit of leeway in dealing with sin. We cannot allow ourselves to believe that we can participate “just a little” in disobeying the commandments of God, for the sin can grab us with an iron hand from which it is excruciatingly painful to free ourselves. The addictions which can come from drugs, alcohol, pornography, and immorality are real and are nearly impossible to break without great struggle and much help.” ~President Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Prophet, October 2015, see ‘Keep the Commandments’
In giving in to the “just a little” approach, we give away power over our agency, one degree at a time. Self deception, and the adversary himself, will cause us to think, ‘now that was no problem’, and so with the next opportunity we may go “just a little” deeper. Warnings from the Spirit often come only once. Those who train themselves to hear and follow such warnings find ‘their load is easy and their burden light’ (Matthew 11:28-30). Should we expose ourselves repeatedly to temptation, those single timely warnings will disappear, (or we fail to hear them) under a barrage of the adversary’s ‘justifications and counter reasoning’. kdm
