That One Guy

Allow me to introduce you to today's subject. I chose to call him "That One Guy" in the title because he has so many different names I didn't know which to use. You may know a few of them: The Father of Lies; Angel of the Bottomless Pit; Beezlebub; the Evil One; Serpent of Old. However you may think of him, I call him Satan, the Jealous One.

Jealousy is a funny thing. It turns something good (happiness, health, love) into hatred and envy. It can turn friendships, even marriage, into complete turmoil and chaos. Guess where it comes from? You got it: Satan. He's so jealous of all of us that he does everything he can to tear people down into jealous despair. He has no boundaries, obviously, and works in ways you and I can't even come close to comprehending. 

But what in the world is he jealous of, you ask? Allow me to name just a few.

Bodies

Yep, number one on the list is our bodies. When Satan and his angels were cast down, they were cut off from a number of things, but a huge one is the privilege of physical bodies. Think about it: our bodies are incredible! Not only do we breathe and pump blood and heck, even going to the bathroom, without giving it a even a thought, but we can create other bodies and feed them, with our bodies. That's AMAZING! Our bodies, however, are far from perfect. Besides illness or injuries, some of us have either troubles with weight gain, acne, dandruff, and a number of other things we can't control most of and shouldn't feel embarrassed about at all. 

But That One Guy sees our human frailties and finds a weak point. He realizes that if he can steer us to look at someone who is, in society's eyes, "better" than us, we will become jealous ourselves and treat our bodies the opposite of what they were intended. Instead of letting us realize how amazing our bodies are, or letting us see the beauty in little imperfections like smile wrinkles and stretch marks, he tells us, "wow, look at all those red bumps on your face. You loser, you can't even manage to keep your skin clear". When in reality we should be thinking, "Wow! I can see out of two little orbs in my head and breathe through holes in my face and speak through a tube in my throat! This is amazing! How does my body know when to grow, that's incredible!" Heavenly Father has given us an incredible gift, and we are infinitely more than Satan will ever be because of it. 
There was an EFY speaker once who told us, "When you get up in the morning, I want you to look in the mirror and say, 'HA! Take that, Satan! I have a body and you've got nothing! I have power over you simply because I have physical form!'" At first, I thought the speaker was crazy. But then the very next morning, I looked in the mirror and thought, 'Ha! Take that, Satan!' And felt 100% better about myself than before, just like that! Satan is jealous of our bodies, and when we allow ourselves to become jealous of the bodies of others, that's one more piece of power he has over us.

Families

Numero dos: la familia. When we are sent here to earth, we are blessed to be a part of an earthly family that has the potential of being Eternal. We are given the incredible opportunity to become mothers and fathers to God's most precious possession: His children. The growth we experience through family relationships is unmatched to anything you can find in the rest of society, and the blessings we receive through becoming faithful sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, sisters or brothers are too numerous to count. Satan knows this, and is (you got it) jealous. He's stuck in eternal damnation, unable to progress or change, and sees that we are growing in leaps and bounds. So, of course, he attacks them. He tells us we're not good enough to be parents. He tells us we're doing a terrible job as an older brother or sister. He tells us there's not time to be a daughter or son right now, there's too many school assignments or jobs or whatever it is to spend time with your family. There are countless ways he destroys our view of our families, but we cannot let him. A wise bishop once told me that nothing matters but getting through life as a worthy person with a worthy family. No amount of money you could make or facebook friends you could impress or social ladders you could climb can make up for the loss of a happy family. 

Happiness

If there is something that describes the opposite of what Satan is, I would think it would be happy. Think about it: he is stuck forever in a damned state, surrounded by people in the same boat as he is. He never gets a body, he never gets a family, and he did it all to himself. He is completely and 100% miserable! And misery loooves company. If you achieve something awesome, he'll tell you someone else did it better. If you start exercising, he'll tell you 'you're going to give up anyways, why even bother?'. If you do well in school, he'll tell you it's not worth anything. And even when you're doing everything exactly the way you're supposed to, when you're praying and reading your scriptures and paying your tithing and magnifying your calling and loving your family- he'll drag up that bad choice from your past, that one time you made your mom cry, that time you broke a promise, and he'll shove it in your face and say, "Oh yeah, well you think you're doing so good? What about when this happened, huh? Weren't you such a terrible person? Gosh, that was awful". The best thing we can do for ourselves is learn to let ourselves be forgiven and tell Satan, "I have been washed clean through the blood of Christ. I am  not the person I was yesterday, and I'll be an even better person tomorrow". 

One of my favorite stories in the scriptures is found in the book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price. Moses is brought into the presence of God, and told marvelous things, including the fact that he is God's literal spirit son. The glory of God and Heaven fills Moses' soul, and he realizes that "man is nothing" in comparison with God's power and glory. Moments later, Satan arrives, demanding that Moses fall down and worship him. But Moses is not fooled. He tells Satan, "Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God, in the similitude of his Only Begotten; and where is thy glory, that I should worship thee?" (Moses 1:13) When Moses comes to a realization of who he is, of the power given to him as God's son, he is able to oust Satan and send his away with "weeping and wailing".

It's true that Satan is real, and he is constantly there tempting us and trying to tear us down. But what I want the message of this point to be is this: We are better and stronger than him! We are more powerful in our imperfect bodies than he will ever be! We have all the strength to resist temptation in us, and even more is given if we but ask our Father in Heaven. Jesus Christ bled and suffered and died for us, all so that we could defeat the Evil One and become exalted beings together with our families and our Heavenly Parents. Remember that. Remember that you are amazing. Remember that you deserve to be absolutely happy. You deserve kingdoms and glory! And it comes when we realize who we are. We are literally spirit children of our Heavenly Father! All we need to do is have faith, follow the commandments, and remember who we are. "Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until heaven; but for those who embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they come" (Jeffery R. Holland). I KNOW with all of my heart that we will be exalted and blessed without end if we believe this and follow it with all of our hearts. There is no temptation or sadness or struggle we cannot get past. 

"Be strong and of good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest" -Joshua 1:9