Removing instead of resisting

I’m feeling like a cliche millennial with my personal story today. Just heads up. (Haha, or maybe anyone of any age can still relate to this!)

A few weeks ago, I set a personal goal for myself to make sure I wasn’t on my phone as often.

I wanted to improve my interactions with my family members and be more present, and I felt like my phone was holding me back a bit from that.

So I decided to do better.

Notifications would pop up and I would ignore them. I let emails go unread. I stopped scrolling just because I had “down time”.

But then I got a notification that looked really important.

And then I got an email that was super interesting and I just had to open it.

And then my phone was once again in my hand more often than it should be.

Finally, I decided I needed to tether it to a charger across the room with the sound on only for texts or phone calls – the actually important alerts.

And it worked.

I forgot about all of the missing notifications, and I was in the moment.
And when I intentionally picked up my phone later, all my notifications were still there for me to peruse.

Resisting my go-to sin started out strong, but I kept finding “reasonable” excuses until I was back to where I was before.

Resisting my sin was really easy when I removed the temptation. In fact, I didn’t really have anything to “resist”.

So yes, I am comparing my cell phone to the Anti-Nephi-Lehies’ swords. (I told you this would be a #millennialprobs post!)

But you can fill in the blank with whatever your go-to sin is right now: anger, inappropriate media, word of wisdom issues…

What makes you want to indulge in your sin?

A notification? A group of friends? A certain habit or routine? A social media account?

Try removing it.

Or at least try changing it.

Although we can ask for the strength to resist our favorite sins, often Heavenly Father asks that we take the initiative and remove the temptation altogether (or as much as possible).

And if we have great faith, we can bury that temptation deep in the earth, never to dig it up again.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black