From Kathy K. Clayton’s book ‘Teaching to Build Faith and Faithfulness:”
All Can Be at Risk of Forgetting Their Spiritual Identity
Shortly after our second daughter was married, her young family moved to Nevada for her husband to open a medical practice. While her husband was at work, I accompanied our daughter to help her with their baby so that she could attend more easily to all the details of purchasing a small home. She had already found a starter home that seemed just right for their family. We went together to the local bank to fill out the paper work for a home loan. All seemed in order until the loan officer astonished us with terrible news. He said that because this young mom had a huge outstanding credit card debt, she was ineligible for the loan. Knowing that the bleak verdict was impossible, our daughter assured the man there must be some mistake because she had never owned a credit card. She had always managed her finances using cash, checks, or a debit card. After some investigation, it was determined that our unsuspecting daughter had been the victim of identity fraud. It took years to clear up the confusion and erase the damage done to her by the malicious action of another.
Ubiquitous advertisements for companies that offer their services to thwart identity theft state in bold, frightening headings warnings like this one: “Every three seconds an identity is stolen and a life is disrupted.”7 They go on to seek to educate unwary victims by suggesting ” 5 things everyone should know about identity theft.”8
More terrible than financial identity theft is the spiritual identity theft that occurs in our modern world in the lives of unsuspecting victims. The five recommendations for victims of financial identity theft can be construed to be applied to the much more serious risk of spiritual identity theft.
“You’re only as safe as your weakest link.” The same is true concerning our spiritual identity. The enemy of our soul targets our vulnerabilities with cunning perception.
“Anyone can be a target.” Overconfidence in spiritual invincibility becomes a weak link in its own right. We have been sufficiently warned about the battle that rages in the latter days for the souls of men to know that everyone is at risk.
“How protected are you?” Identity theft claims occur only after the crime has been committed. It would always be better to avert the crime in the first place. The same is true of spiritual identity theft. Being armed to avoid vulnerability from uncertainty of self is better than dealing with consequences of having been compromised by poor choices.
“Once your Social Security number is out, it’s staying out.” Thankfully, this caution doesn’t apply to spiritual identity theft. The miracle of repentance and forgiveness enables us to clear the record and regain a purity of soul. Every day is a new beginning for a person who has made poor choices by forgetting who he is spiritually.
“There is help.” Regarding spiritual identity theft, there most definitely is help. There is help avoiding the influences that cause the loss of celestial certainty and there is help reclaiming it if it is temporarily lost.
Kathy K. Clayton, Teaching to Build Faith and Faithfulness (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2012), 28-30
