I’m sure you’ve heard of the escalator analogy:

There’s no such thing as standing still on a downward escalator.

You are either working to take steps up, or you are slowly being brought down the staircase.

In Helaman’s epistle to Moroni, he talks about all of the energy and strength it took his army just to maintain the cities they had already taken back.

There were times where they couldn’t put any thought into offensive strategy because they just had to maintain.

It takes a lot of work to “maintain”.

I know this as a homeowner, as someone who gets her hair done, as a car owner, as someone with small children living in a home…

And as a lover of the gospel.

Maintaining takes a lot of effort.

When I take a vacation from keeping myself close to the Spirit, I can feel myself slipping farther away, even just a little bit.

But the cool part is that the escalator analogy starts to break down when we look at the big picture.

Because we are on a never-ending escalator. There is no “gone too far”, and there’s also no “you’ve made it” in this life.

The very moment that we desire to take a step forward, the moment we send off our troops to just maintain the city…

Our Savior is there to help give us a boost.

Sometimes we are walking much faster than the escalator is moving. We are taking back cities and busting sins and growing that testimony.

And other times, it takes all of our effort to just hold on to the ground we’ve already made.

Just like those Nephite soldiers, giving everything they had, and waiting for more strength to be sent their way.

So here’s to the maintainers.

Those who do the unseen work. Sometimes not even noticed by ourselves.

The reinforcements will come, the strength will come, the growth will come and you will win the war.

But, for now, we maintain.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

Share:

Facebook
Pinterest
Email
Print

4 Responses

  1. This is Heavenly- to read your Snippets daily. I needed this today. You here that a lot, I know. But no sitcom or Tv series could come up with our family the past 3 generations. Faith. I always tell myself- start at the beginning- FAITH. It wins every time . Thx for today’s. It helps make sense. And I’m grateful. Getting to the point where I can’t live without your Snippets!

  2. I loved this! We are all just hanging on right now. Trying to maintain our homes (cleaning the kitchen 4 times a day) and keeping our children feeling ok about the world. Thanks for your insights every week.

    1. I totally feel you! Life would a whole lot simpler if we didn’t have to eat and make messes all the time! 🙂 Haha. Here’s to maintaining!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I accept the Privacy Policy

Keep Studying

Related Posts

Toxic positivity 

I’ve been seeing A LOT of people talking online recently about the dangers of toxic positivity. ⁣ And I love it. ⁣ In case you

Stretchy yoga pants 

As soon as I realize I don’t need to leave the house for the rest of the day… I quickly change into stretchy, cozy yoga

The tough 6th grader 

“Oh yeah, I don’t put up with any of his nonsense. I just call him out for it in front of everyone.”⁣ This is the

Know your stewardship

When I write spiritual thoughts on social media or in my emails, I do my best to have the Spirit with me. It makes it

Nervous teaching assistant 

“Don’t be nervous! Teachers always love people who just jump in and help out without being told!”⁣ But I was still nervous. ⁣ It was