Monday, May 12, 2008

Satan's ride on his lawnmower of sin

Do you know how kids love their bikes, and their roller blades, and their dirt bikes and 4-wheelers.  Well I did have a bike.  And I did have roller blades. But I guess my parents couldn't afford a 4-wheeler.  But I did have something I loved to feel speed on.  It was a riding lawnmower.  Now, I know what you're thinking...a lawnmower?  My dog can walk waster than you can go at full-speed.

My lawnmower was different.  It was one of those old snappers, and we tricked it up a little.  You could put your foot on the break, hold it for a second, and then release it.  It would jump in the air at least a foot.  It felt like more, but my lawnmower did have limitations on its coolness.  I loved to drive it.  We had a few acres of grass-cutting land and I would go out every Saturday in my bathing suit and flip flops.  It would take me about 3-4 hours to cut all of the grass, and by the end, I would have an nice bronze tan.  I loved those days.  Now as you can imagine, I have many stories about the times I had bonding with my lawnmower.

I'd like to share a few stories that I've had on my lawnmower, and there have been quite a few.  I mean, there was that one time I ran over the snake and saw it shoot out the side....in pieces.  Bending the blade on the tree stump I ran over and from then on until my dad hammered the dent down it would make a high pitched squeal.

Let's consider an analogy.  From this point on, my massive beast of a lawnmower...we are going to compare it with the likes of Satan.


Ball story
"One day, I was riding the lawnmower on our land down by the lake. My dogs, Tibs and Annie were running around chasing each other and fighting over their tennis ball. I had just given them a new one that morning. It was still green and the words shone the Black emblem of the brand. I was heading down this one hill and at the bottom the dogs were wrestling. I yelled, "move dogs" and they scattered before my monster got them.

But the ball remained in the path of it. I couldn't move out of its path fast enough, so I prepared myself for the clanging of the blade. I cursed myself as I went over it. I had just got my dad to fix the blade after my last collision with a hard tree trunk, and here I was running over something again. Well to my amazement, the blade didn't hit it and it just shot out of the lawnmower at full speed.

My dogs did not fail to miss where their little ball had gone and ran like mad to catch it. It had went alot farther than I had ever thrown it and they saw that if they placed the ball directly under the lawnmower, it would shoot their ball out like an automatic hand. How lucky for them. So they started to do that and I didn't see any real damage to the ball. It did start to fray after the first few times, but the ball was still in tact.

Eventually I noticed that the ball was starting to crack down the middle. That was when I was on a lemonade break and was throwing the ball to the dogs in-between sips. It was still hard but the crack was distinctly down the middle. Well it was just a tennis ball I guess and it was better than me throwing yucky chewed up balls. So I got back on the lawnmower and continued my work and they continued their play. Before I knew it, all the green on the ball as well as the black lettering had been ripped off.

It was a brown ball underneath and the rip was considerably deep. In fact, there were two separate parts after a few more rides on the lawnmower. Well that solved one problem. Now they weren't fighting for one ball, they were just fighting for their piece. So the lawnmower continued to shred the pieces until there was nothing left but shreds. Then the dogs realized there was no ball anymore and went in search for a new one.

Now consider the analogy that has come after I had repeated this process a few times and saw the significance.  If my lawnmower was Satan, the blade is sin, the ball was your life, and imagine the driver would be you.

If you can remember back, the initial shock of running over the ball was a little scary and I kind of cringed at first. But after I saw how I ran over it without damaging the blade, I felt more confident.  I also saw the benefits of r running over it.  I was rationalizing that I would never have to get off the lawnmower now and throw the ball for the dogs.  I had an automatic thrower.  Now if the ball represents sin, the first run-over with sin didn't seem so bad.  No negative effects were seen or felt.  It was all thrills.


You continue to ride over it again and again.  It is a favorite past time.  The inside of your ball starts to crack. In my mind, there is a separation of self.  There is no fence sitting at this point.  You are no longer trying out the sin anymore.  It has become an addiction and you can't see the harmful effects because the crack starts on the inside and your appearance hasn't changed.  You justifying the new feelings you are having and put them behind you. 

When the ball becomes brown, this the first noticeable difference.  Your sin increases and your rationalization becomes stronger as others start to realize.  You separate yourselves from friends and family that you no longer feel comfortable around.  You give them the cold shoulder and refuse to talk about it.  You stop doing the routine things you used to do because this sin takes more and more of your time.  Your ball is ripping at the shreds, and patches of you are gone.  You are slowly losing who you are inside.  

One day, you are feeling no real consequence for sinning, and then suddenly the big consequence hits you like a ton of bricks.  The ball is ripped in two and you are completely changed forever.  Somehow you STILL rationalize.  You realize that you have not gone down the right path.  You are too far gone and there is no turning back.  Pride is now your worst enemy.  It prevents you from pulling yourself together and going through the steps necessary to return in whole form again.


Carlos E. Asay
“Sin is the older and uglier brother of bad habit. Sin, like habit, can enter our lives in a seemingly innocuous way. It can begin small and occupy only a corner of our lives. Yet, if left unattended, countenanced, and allowed to flourish, it can consume our souls.


Now I know that no tennis ball can be glued together after it has been torn like that.  It is irreparable damage that cannot be fixed.  No on its own.  The maker of the tennis ball needs to create a new ball.  New rubber, new green turf grass, and new black shiny markings.  Only then can that ball be whole again.  It happens all the time....we see new balls given to willing puppies all the time.   

Your lives are so precious to the Lord.  He loves you.  He knows that there are opportunities to choose.  And some of those choices will lead to sin.  The point of having sin in this life is to test you and to try you.  Whoever has said that you need to experience sin in order to experience life has spoken incorrectly.  They are 100% wrong. You can experience their pain, their addiction, and their sin vicariously through those that make those choices and you will see for yourself, it is not worth the risk and the dear cost.

Satan is our greatest enemy.  Here are just some of the words that describe what he is and what he is like:  He is a deceiver, he beguiles, he set snares, he cheats, entices, and tempts.  His less noticeable qualities that are even more dangerous are that he pacifies, lulls, blinds, flatters.  Then he weakens, cripples, addicts you, and destroys.  He cares nothing for you.  He uses you and discards you without a second's notice.



Other resources:

  • Lawnmower stories

-Getting too close to the ledge
-Making things into what they weren't (Lawnmower is not a 4-wheeler)
-Running over a snake
-Talking to myself
-Bending the blade on a tree stump
  • Satan's Letter to missionary
(Seminary student, righteous teenager)


  • Flaxen Cord:


2 Nep 26:22 "...yea and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever."

The reference to a flaxen cord in 2 Nephi 26:22 is one example: “He leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever.” This passage contains some obvious biblical themes. The submitting of the neck to a yoke or placing the hand or foot upon the neck of a captive and binding prisoners with cords are familiar,1 but what of the gentle binding with the flaxen cord followed by the final and inescapable binding with strong cords? Does this image also have a biblical source?



Flax was a common material used to make cords and ropes, because it is soft and strong and does not stretch, which makes it useful for measuring.2 Archaeological examples from Egypt are known from the First, Twelfth, and Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasties.3 The Bible often refers to flax (or tow) and its byproduct linen (the same terms, peset and pistah, are used for all three), but only rarely can these references be understood to mean cords of flax. Examples of the latter usage may be found in Judges 15:14, Isaiah 19:9, and Ezekiel 40:3. The example from Judges concerns the binding of Samson, one of the most dramatic stories in the Old Testament.

Relying on his supernatural strength, Samson allowed the men of Judah to bind him and deliver him to the Philistines: “. . . and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands” (Judges 15:14). When a flaxen cord is burned, the ash retains the cord’s outward form but crumbles at the touch, making burned flax a suitable image for fragility.4 Later, Samson playfully allowed Delilah to bind him with green withes and with new ropes and to weave his hair into a web. In each case he escaped easily, mocking the Philistines, until at last he was betrayed by his overconfidence, deprived of his strength, and bound with unbreakable fetters.

The story of the binding of Samson is a powerful lesson in the dangers of flirting with evil and confiding in our own strength. In 2 Nephi 26:22 the image of the flaxen cord being replaced by unbreakable strong cords recalls the binding of Sam son, suggesting that Nephi was familiar with that story and that some version of it may have been preserved on the brass plates. It is also significant that, of the prophets in the Book of Mormon, only Nephi, who was familiar with the Old World, mentions flax. Flax seems to have been unavailable in the New World, where cotton and hemp were used instead

A flaxen cord is a soft cord, one that is easily broken. Often the soft flaxen cord is hardly noticed when first placed around the neck. However, with time the grip of Satan strengthens until one is bound with strong cords and led to eternal destruction. “The safest road to Hell…is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, p. xi)

If only we would recognize the flaxen cord for what it is. When Satan puts such cords around our necks, they can be easily broken if they are noticed. However, as he progressively places stronger cords around our necks, his grip over our souls strengthens—we become choked as to the things of the Spirit. Elder Carlos E. Asay said, “The first wrongdoing is like a single strand of flaxen thread; it is easily broken and thrown aside. But each time the wrong is repeated another strand is intertwined around the first, and on and on it goes until an almost unbreakable cord of multi-strands is woven. ‘The chains of habit,’ said Samuel Johnson, ‘are too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.’” The Road to Somewhere: A Guide for Young Men and Women [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1994], 94.)” Eventually, Satan binds us with his chains of darkness which we cannot, by ourselves, remove. Unlike the breakable flaxen cord, these chains of darkness require the assistance of others, priesthood leaders and the Savior’s atonement, in order to break free.

“An ancient American prophet understood perfectly this concept of which I speak. He referred to the devil as the founder of sin and works of darkness and warned: ‘He [the devil] leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever’ ("2 Ne. 26:222 Nephi 26:22).

“Those who become followers of the evil one do not generally reach their captive state with one misdeed; they lose their freedom one sin at a time—one error after another—until almost all is lost. Flaxen cords are transformed into awful chains of steel as they allow themselves to follow the downward course. Each easy step away from the line of goodness and truth makes it more and more difficult to recover.


The temptations of Satan are ever so subtle. They begin innocently and sometimes hardly register on our spiritual RADAR. But if we do not watch ourselves and our thoughts and our words and our deeds (Mosiah 4:30), then Satan will ever so gently cast his flaxen cord around our neck unnoticed. Then that cord begins to thicken until we are bound "with his strong cords forever" (2 Nephi 26:22).

He asked us: "What does the word flaxen mean?" It comes from a plant, which they make linen out of. It is soft and not very strong. One flaxen cord is not very strong or powerful at all. Six cords is just over the maximum we can handle. We can break out of one or two cords, but we don't know how many it will take to bind us and keep us from breaking out of them. The trouble is, we don't know what the power of the flaxen cords are until we are bound up by them and then it is too late. We don't know how many will bind us until we can't break out of them any more. And that is the analogy to Satan's flaxen cord in this verse, David taught. Satan is really pretty good at what he does with his flaxen cords and sometimes we can get caught up in following him. As long as it's just a light cord, we can think "it's just a light cord", but in reality it is not and they start added up to become powerful, strong cords which can eventually bind us to sin.
David said he is really intrigued by carnivorous plants. There are all kinds of these plants and some are very expensive. Two of the most common carnivorous plants are the Pitcher Plant and the Venus Fly Trap. A Pitcher Plant traps its prey by letting it a fly eat some food at the top of its round vase-like body. This food actually has a narcotic effect on the fly and lulls it into going deeper into the plant's body, as plant hairs inside make it slippery and help it go in deeper. It then falls down into the bottom of this vase where acid digests it into food for the plant. So the fly doesn't really have any safety in eating on the Pitcher Plant at all. Now, with the Venus Fly Trap, there are two flaps that come together very fast to form the trap around the fly. Around the edges of each flap are little pieces of sweet smelling food that attracts the fly. The fly will eat at this food around the edges, then go into the center to find more, and once it's in the center the two flaps of the trap will close really fast around the fly - then it's caught, to be digested as food for the plant.

Now the analogy of the carnivorous plant to the flaxen cord is this: we are attracted to do things that at first seem fine to do, with no adverse consequences in sight. But eventually, if we keep going around the edges of the flaxen cord type of sins we will get caught up, fall into, and become trapped by these sins. Then they become very powerful and strong, to bind us and keep us in their awful power. We do not want to find ourselves in this kind of situation at all, so we need to be on a constant lookout in our lives for the flaxen cords of sin that at first glance may not seem to be very bad, but will catch and bind us in the end.

David taught us that Satan will put a temptation in our path that is light enough that we can get out of it or we can resist it. And so we think we're safe and once we're there we will keep doing these small, seemingly inconsequential sins that eventually add up to a payday for Satan, which becomes a day of entrapment in sin for us.




Susan Bednar


"Safe rebellion?"


Let me share what I believe these deceptive cords could be. I think they are attitudes and behavior we call “safe rebellion.” For many years I have heard the phrase “safe rebellion” used among youth and adults in the Church. This term suggests that forms of subtle and inconspicuous defiance and disobedience, coupled with rationalization and justification for inappropriate behavior, are considered permissible, acceptable, and even harmless. It is a way to “sort of trespass or sin just a little” but not put ourselves in any lasting spiritual danger—or so we think. Consider these subtle statements we hear almost every day and the behavior that accompanies them: “I have my agency, and I can do as I please.” “It’s no big deal, and I’m not hurting anyone else.” “I know what the prophet says, but my situation is different.” One of these statements defies, one rationalizes, and one justifies. Are these typical rebellious attitudes and behaviors safe and harmless; or, like the noxious vine, are they deceptive tools of the adversary that can lead and bend and eventually pull us toward our own spiritual downfall and destruction?
Scripture defines the rebellious as those who turn away from the Lord and despise his judgments, those who hear but won’t hearken to His words, and those who have eyes to see but won’t (see Ezekiel 20:13; Isaiah 30:9; Alma 10:6; Ezekiel 12:2).
A scripture in 3 Nephi describes the rebellious perfectly:

Now they did not sin ignorantly, for they knew the will of God concerning them, for it had been taught unto them; therefore they did wilfully rebel against God (3 Nephi 6:18).
The term rebellious is also used scripturally in conjunction with the words disobedient, stubborn, stiff-necked, and hard hearted (see Nehemiah 9:26; Psalms 78:8; Deuteronomy 31:27; 2 Chronicles 36:13).
Do any of us fit this definition of rebellious? I know at times I do. At various moments and in different ways, the natural man (see Mosiah 16:5) in all of us surfaces, and being a bit rebellious seems deceptively alluring, attractive, and harmless—just as the vine on the raspberry stalk. We enjoy the false feeling of independence which accompanies our rebellious streak. We don’t want anyone else controlling our lives or telling us what to do—sometimes not even the Lord or His servants. We wrongly express our sovereignty by picking and choosing which standards we wish to disobey and to what degree we will disobey them—a little or a lot. We’re defiant, and we know it, and we’re proud of it. We mock and ridicule others whom we perceive as too straight, too strict, or too compliant in the way they live the gospel. Then we give congratulatory pats on the back to ourselves and each other for bending or breaking the rules just a little and getting away with it. We salve our consciences with self-satisfying rationalizations, and we justify our unseemly behavior as benign. But is any form of disobedience or measure of rebellion safe and harmless? I’ve come to think not. Let me explain why.
The Bible Dictionary teaches that in the premortal life Lucifer and his followers refused to accept the appointment of Jesus Christ as the Savior of our Heavenly Father’s eternal plan. Because of their rebellion, they were cast from His presence. Thus, the devil became the enemy of righteousness and of those who seek to do the will of God (see Bible Dictionary, Devil). Refusal to submit and a rebellious attitude caused the devil’s downfall, and he knows it can cause ours.
Ponder this statement from President Harold B. Lee:

There are carefully charted on the maps of the opposition the weak spots in every one of us. They are known to the forces of evil, and just the moment we lower the defense of any one of those ports, that becomes the D Day of our invasion, and our souls are in danger (Powers of the Gospel, Improvement Era, November 1949, p. 737).
Defiance, rationalization, and justification expose our human frailties and susceptibilities and entice us to forfeit our willingness to freely submit our will to the will of the Father. By incremental steps, the lie of safe rebellion can eventually wind its way around our unsuspecting hearts and minds—carefully taking advantage of our weaknesses until we are bound by the strong cords of the adversary.
My dear young friends, it’s time to see safe rebellion for what it really is—an attractive, yet noxious and destructive weed. It’s time to pull it out. And it may even be necessary to call the weed superintendent to learn how to permanently eradicate it!
As we seek to cultivate a more humble and submissive attitude along with obedient behavior, may we know there is understanding from a caring Father in Heaven, succor from our loving Savior, and assistance from the holy scriptures and the wise teachings of living prophets and apostles. May we have the courage to seek their fortifying help is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.


Lehonti/Amalikiah story (Alma 47)






Helaman 7: 16-21


"Yea, how could you have given way to the enticing of him, who is seeking to hurl away your souls down to everlasting misery and endless woe? O repent ye, repent ye! Why will ye die? Turn ye, turn ye unto the Lord your God. Why has he forsaken you? It is because you have hardened your hearts; yea, ye will not hearken to the voice of of the good shepherd; yea, ye have provoked him to anger against you. And behold instead of gathering you, except ye will repent, behold, he shall scatter you forth that ye shall become meat for dogs and wild beasts. O how could you have forgotten your God in the very day that he has delivered you? But behold it is to get gain, to be praised of men, yea, and that ye might get gold and silver. And ye have set your hearts upon the riches of this world, for the which ye do murder, and plunder, and steal, and bear false witness against your neighbor, and do all manner of iniquity.





  • Jenny Flake Rabe Let me clarify....things that happened while you were cutting the grass.


  • Mikael Gold Stansfield When I was a kid I was mowing the lawn barefoot...bad idea anyway... but I stepped on a wasp and it stung the bottom of my foot. Then another time I stepped on a sewer manhole that was loose (which I obviously didn't know before hand) and the manhole cover flipped and my whole leg slipped down into the manhole and my entire leg was scraped up really badly all the way from my ankle to my hip.

  • Jenny Flake Rabe Did you wear shoes after that?
  • Mikael Gold Stansfield Yes...always. And I make Ace ALWAYS wear shoes while wearing the lawn...which he of course ALWAYS complains about.
  • Michelle Bruce Carter Not really while he was cutting the grass, but my dad was fixing a lawnmower once and the blades got going and cut his fingers. I don't know the whole story because it was before I was born, I just know he always had ugly fingernails on one hand because of that.
  • Jamie Mccard I had to put bricks in the seat with me when I was younger cause when I went over a bump the blade always stopped. Needless to say the yard always had gaps.
  • Sharlee Hill Toberman My brother in law ran over and lost half of his big toe. He doesn't have a nail, and a good portion of the toe is missing.
  • Marie Sudweeks Lore My brother ran over a rabbit burrow right when the bunny popped its head up. Needless to say it was traumatic for everybody....poor Thumper never stood a chance. Same brother would mow our huge 1 acre yard with a push mower in the sweltering Texas heat. Took him all day long to finish.
  • Shawn Rhinehart Once I drank some rootbeer that had been sitting outside open for a couple of hours and get stung on the tongue by a bee. It hurt. Has nothing to do with mowing lawns, but thought I'd share.
  • Micaiah Masterson I ran over a dead rabbit ones and it smelled.
    Ken Flake i had a lawnmower roll over when I was on it.
  • Zachary McLane I was riding a lawn mower off the back of a pick up when the ramps slipped. I landed on my back in time to see it right before it landed on top of me.




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