Entangling Nets

 Four different times yesterday I tripped over, stubbed my toe or knocked down the loose baby gate leaning against the stairs.

Four!  We use it to keep the dogs downstairs at certain times but they've  been able to go up and down freely for a few days. And I just kept knocking that gate over again and then getting frustrated.  

Finally, I moved the gate. 

And incredibly enough I am now less likely to trip on it. 🤦‍♀️

In the same way sometimes as we work to free ourselves from entangling sin, if we fail to change the circumstances or environment around us, we are much more likely to find ourselves stuck in that sin again.

And then feeling frustrated and discouraged.

Elder Joseph B Wirthlin cautioned, "I do not know of another period in the history of the world that has been so filled with such a variety of entangling nets. Our lives are so easily filled with appointments, meetings, and tasks. It is so easy to get caught in a multitude of nets that sometimes even a suggestion of breaking free of them can be threatening and even frightening to us."

He specifically mentions technology, work, sports, and overspending and how all of these things may have good sides but also can trap us if we aren't careful.  

And clarifies, "Nets in this context can be our work, our hobbies, our pleasures, and, above all else, our temptations and sins. In short, a net can be anything that pulls us away from our relationship with our Heavenly Father or from His restored Church."

If they become more important to us than the things of eternal importance, we become entangled.  We can give away our freedoms and become slaves to these idols, no longer even choosing them but simply tripping over them because they are there.

So what do we do?  We listen and follow

Jesus Christ.

We "straightway leave the nets".

We move the gate.