Stay within the Lines!

Love this blog!  So needed.  Step forward.  Make the commitment.

A video keeps coming to mind that I have felt I needed to share once I found out about this blog.

Elder Holland states in it:

"In almost all athletic contest...there are lines drawn on the floor or on the field within which every participant must stay in order to compete.  Well, the Lord has drawn lines of worthiness for those called to labor with him in this work."

 "You face his influence at a younger and younger age..."

"You cannot travel down forbidden paths and expect to guide others down the straight and narrow one... it cannot be done."

The standards of God are clear:

 Developing serious relationships too early in life can limit the number of other people you meet and can perhaps lead to immorality.--"For the Strength of Youth" from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Elder Holland continues:

"This is a life and death contest we are in!!!  The game is close and victory means everything!

We need young men (and women!) already on the team to STAY on it and stop dribbling out of bounds just when you need to get in the game and play your hearts out!"

Don't play with the boundaries of "what is permitted," my friends.  When you chose to do something counter to the counsel of God, you are listening to someone else.  And he doesn't love you like God does.

Others are watching you.  Where once you may have made commitments and are now going contrary to those, people are watching and questioning and wondering.  "Well, if so and so does this..."

I love what Elder Holland says:

"Unbind your tongues and watch your words work wonders in the lives of those who are kept from the truth because they know not where to find it!  With all there is to do along the path to eternal life, we need a lot more people [opening] that gate and helping them through it."

You can do miracles if you stay within the lines.  Don't play with those lines.  Enjoy this time of life...a time to get to know a lot of people!  Don't lie to yourself if you find yourself pairing off, justifying that if you "go on a date with someone else" or you "talk to other people, too" you are not pairing off, when you and everyone around you knows you are developing a relationship of preference with just one person. 

Enjoy the freedom that comes with doing God's will whole-heartedly and 

watch your influence spread! :)