8: Summary of all that is stacked against us in life.

So if you take into account everything that is stacked against us it can become very discouraging very quickly. First, we are the sum of our thoughts, feelings and actions. Second, we are given agency to choose. Third we are asked to choose the good over the evil, which also means there is no other third alternative, it is only a choice between good and bad. Fourth, we have outside forces enticing us to be bad or chose unwisely. Fifth, we are given our physical bodies and all the desires our natural man is prone to. Sixth and finally, Heavenly Father requires that we handle our thoughts, feelings and actions perfectly or we can’t return to live with him.

This is the point in most our lives that we begin to struggle mightily.(Hel 5:12; D&C 90:5) When we realize how much is stacked against us we begin to slip below the line. When we are bombarded on every side and there seems to be no respite from the storm we begin to have victim type attitudes that bind us to our problems. Addictions and vices seem insurmountable, forgiving and challenges of the heart are near impossible to deal with, and destructive intellectualism lead us unwillingly down darkened paths. If this was the end of the story we would all be entirely justified in doing, thinking, and feeling the above. However, this isn’t the end of the story and that is the good news.