Snakebites and Peroxide - (revisited)

   Today I was going through my old posts, and I came across this one entitled, "Snakebites and Peroxide". Since it looked like most had missed it, I have reposted it with some revisions for your upliftment and learning. Enjoy!

     So, in my last area, I was out visiting some people, that happened to own some beautiful pythons. We had actually just helped bring over a new tank to their house for the snakes when naturally we started playing with them. 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 a minute or so before the owner was able to get the snake to release. It actually wasn't terribly painful since it was only a Burmese (no fangs, just small teeth), but 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.



           
     A 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, it will become infected 100% of the time. 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 fully 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.

         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 effects of the sin from us.




   Also, here, you can find the original Snakebites and Peroxide.

A Lack of Communication

    Recently, I have been contemplating the concept of communication. My companion and I have had to learn a lot about that over the course of our 4 1/2 months together.  An account in the Bible came to mind one afternoon a couple of weeks ago. It is the story of the Tower of Babel. The full account can be found in Genesis 11, but for this post, I will put just verses 6, 7, and 8 up. They read:

6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their ^alanguage, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

    As I contemplated this story, I realized that construction on the Tower didn't stop because God destroyed the tower. Rather, construction on the Tower stopped because He confused their language, that they were not able to communicate with each other.

   I have seen this many times over the course of my mission, and my life. Whenever my companion and I would stop talking to each other, usually due to frustration, and sometimes anger, nothing would get resolved, and very little was accomplished.

    From this story, and from my own daily interactions with people, I have learned this valuable truth: that When communication ceases, so does progression.