From his book “Return,” Robert D. Hales wrote:
“There is a marvelous lesson to be learned from those who live in the islands. When they catch crabs, they place them in a small flat basket. If you place one crab in a basket, it crawls right out; if you place two crabs in the basket, every time one crab starts to climb out, it is pulled back by the other crab.
This method is one way—and a very effective way—that Lucifer accomplishes his work. His mission statement is to make all men “miserable like unto himself” (2 Nephi 2:27). As we strive to be spiritually strong and escape the sins of this world, he strives to hold onto us and keep us in his grasp.
Knowingly or unknowingly, sometimes our friends participate in this kind of behavior. Sin likes company, and when a friend is taking a detour from the strait and narrow path, he or she will be naturally inclined to bring us along. For this reason, among the most critical decisions we make during our decade of preparation is who our friends will be. Our most important choices will be influenced by them. Where ever we go, we will be tempted to go with them. Whoever they are is a good indication of who we may be becoming.
. . . . If your present friends are taking you down a path of wickedness or apathy towards spiritual things, depart from them now. As the Savior instructed His disciples, “Wherefore if thy hand or foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire” (Matthew 18:8). The Joseph Smith translation makes the Savior’s translation unmistakably clear: “And if a man’s hand is his friend, and his foot also: and a man’s eye, are they of his own household” (JST Matthew 18:9).
Aron Ralston was hiking alone in a Utah canyon when the boulder from which he was hanging shifted pinning his arm beneath it. He found himself trapped with no way to get help. After five days of doing everything he could to extract himself, he realized he faced a terrible decision: to cut off his own arm or die pinned under the boulder in the middle of the desert. Painful as it was to cut off his arm with only the knife in his pocket, Aron chose to do that and live rather than keep his arm and die.
Like Aron, we must make hard choices if our friends are leading us away from the path that leads to eternal life. We may be reluctant to leave behind such friends because we are afraid to be without friends. Young people have told me, “I’d rather starve than not have a friend.”
But doing anything to get or keep a friend means having friends who could require anything from us. When we are more worried about what our friends think than what our Heavenly Father thinks, we are vulnerable indeed.
A simple commandment will help us: “Choose you this day whom ye will serve” (Joshua 24:15). We have the power to decide whom we will serve and whom we will have by our side. The mocking, pointing finger of those in the “great and spacious building” (1 Nephi 8:26) cannot cause us to choose friends who will weaken us or entice us off the path. Friends who encourage us to compromise our principles generally use us to benefit themselves. We may want to ask ourselves. Why are they my friends? Is it because they really support who I am and what I believe, or is it because they like the company (and tacit [understood] support) I provide in the wrong choices they make?. . . . ~Robert D. Hales, Return (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 2010), 96-98
