Prepared to resist temptation

The most poignant lesson I learned this week was a principle taught in Moses 1 about how to discern between truth and lies. Moses has the experience of seeing and speaking with God face to face (v 2) and right after that experience, Satan comes to Moses to tempt him (v 12). Moses refuses to be swayed by Satan's temptations because he "can judge between [Satan] and God" (v 15, 18). How is Moses so confident that Satan is trying to deceive him? Because he has just experienced the Glory of God (v 14).

We joked a bit as a family that Satan's timing was a little bit off, and that if he really wanted a better shot at deceiving Moses, then maybe Satan should have waited a little bit longer before approaching Moses.

But there's an important lesson we can learn and apply as we think about Satan's timing: The more we expose ourselves to light and truth, the easier it is to detect darkness. In this chapter, the Savior is described twice as being full of grace and truth (v 6, 32). If we are constantly putting effort into having spiritual experiences with our Savior, then we will never be too far away from His influence which can and will help us discern between truth and deception.

I think this principle resonated with me because of a recent Leadership Training Meeting I was able to attend with Elder Soares. In this meeting, a question was asked about what we can do to keep our youth spiritually strong. Elder Soares responded by saying that we need to expose our youth/children to more spiritual experiences. He specifically mentioned using the Come, Follow Me and Family Home Evening programs as opportunities to expose our children to more spiritual experiences.

The same principle is true for us as well. If we want to be more prepared to resist temptation, then we need to do those things that will help us keep the Spirit in our life. The closer we can be to Jesus Christ, the easier it becomes to discern between His truth and Satan's lies.