I Was Tempted

Have. You ever been tempted?  Of course you have.  Recently I faced a huge temptation the other morning.  It was so heavy that it felt like a war.  It felt like a war between good and evil.  It was that heavy.

After I finish jogging, there is an area where I take a cool-down walk.  In that area there is a group of garden plots that are owned, I assume, by the county and it is fenced in.  People go there to plants gardens in the spring.  Outside of the fenced in area the county dumps a truck load of mulch and top soil for people to use on their gardens.  They dump so much that it never gets used in one season so it lays there for the entire winter.  For months I have been tempted to bring a few small plastic grocery bags and fill them with mulch and top soil and prepare my flower beds for spring time.  The problem is that it is not mine.  It belongs to the county and for me to take it would amount to stealing.  So the other morning someone began to talk to me inside.  I assume that, if it was not Satan, it was at least inspired by him.  It became a huge inner battle for me.  It said things like, “It belongs to the county and you pay taxes to the county so it belongs to you.”  It said, “If you use it God will forgive you.”  It said, “Oh, it is just a little mulch and they won’t mind and look at how pretty your flower beds will be.”  Then another voice spoke to me and I know it was inspired by God.  I said, “Every time you step out the door and see your pretty flower beds it will remind you of the sin it took to get them that way. It said, “Perry, In your whole life, you only took one thing that didn’t belong to you and it was a piece of penny candy, but you can’t forget how that seeming insignificant deed wounded youto this day every time you think about it.”  Finally, it said, “Look at how you live your life with so much integrity and bad things still happened so go ahead.  Do it,” to which I responded, “My integrity is priceless so I will keep it and it is not worth the scar on my soul.”  Then I took the bags, put them in the trash and went home.  I will end this with a song.

“Yield not to temptation.  Fore yielding is sin.

Each victory will help you, some others to win.

Fight manfully onward (and I like this part) “dark passions subdue.”

He is willing to aide you, and He will carry you through.

Just ask the Savior to help you, comfort, strengthen and keep you.

He is willing to aide you.  He will carry you through.”

You need to read the rest of those verses.  I just did not put them in this post.  The are wonderful verses.