Snakebites and Peroxide

       As is often the case, I have been wanting to post this for a few days now, but I had to let it stew for a little while, so it comes out just right. So, this last Friday, I was out visiting that one house with the snakes again that we visited about a a couple of weeks ago. For now on, we will refer to her as the "Snake Lady". So, we had actually just helped bring over a new tank to their house for the snakes when naturally we started playing with them. And then, all of a sudden (drum roll please) one of the snakes lunged and latched on to my hand. It was pretty intense. It took about half a minute or so before Snake Lady skillfully forced the snake to let go. It actually wasn't terribly painful since it was only a Burmese (no fangs, thank goodness), although it did bruise a little bit. Probably the coolest thing about it all, besides the fact that I am the ONLY person that has been bitten by that snake, is the fact that it left a scar in the shape of a smiley face on my hand. Afterwards, I was sure to clean it out thoroughly, just in case.



        
      I liken this unto someone who decides to walk on the very edge of a cliff, someone who goes to a party not intending to drink, or in my case, someone who played with a snake that was hungry. It's all the same. If we are to keep from getting hurt, the best way to do so is to do our best to avoid situations where it is likely we will get hurt.
      The same thing applies to sin. If we are to do our best to keep from committing sin, it's not enough to say we won't do it. It also becomes imperative that we stay as far away from it as we can. A saying I have heard multiple times comes to mind. "Vice is a monster of so frightful mien. As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace." (John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1968, p. 409). Even if we aren't "doing" the sin, it's important to completely avoid sin to the best of our ability, lest unawares we find ourselves ensnared.
     The other realization came to me that if I hadn't cleaned my wound thoroughly, I would've risked it getting infected. If we do commit sin, which happens in all our lives at one point or another, it is important to get rid of it immediately and clean the wound. If don't take care of, it will become infected 100%. There is no such thing as a clean sin. And, the longer we leave sin there, the more time it will have to fester, and become worse. In my case, I used Hydrogen Peroxide to clean my snakebite. In the case of sin, there is truly only one thing that can clean us - the Atonement, which was Christ's sacrifice in the Garden of Gethsemane, His dieing on the cross, and His Resurrection. We access the power of the Atonement in our lives through repentance, and become clean as we repent and are baptized.


     

         Just as the best way to avoid getting bitten by snakes, is to avoid snakes, I know that the surest way to keep from sinning, is to avoid sin. And even though there still might be sin around us, if we are doing our best to stand in holy places, away from sin, God will give us aid. I also know that the healing power of the Atonement is real and that when we are baptized by one having Christ's authority, we can become clean again, and have all our sins washed away. And, as we continually repent thereafter, we can again become clean, and remove the presence of sin in our lives.