Distracting Obsessions

by Tristi Pinkston | More from this Blogger

25 Sep 2008 07:55 PM

Have you ever read a quote and been so struck by the truthfulness of it, you immediately felt guilty and yet uplifted at the same time? That is how I felt when I read the following quote from Neal A. Maxwell:

"Once the telestial sins are left behind and henceforth avoided, the focus falls ever more on the sins of omission. These omissions signify a lack of qualifying fully for the celestial kingdom. Only greater consecration can correct these omissions, which have consequences just as real as do the sins of commission. Many of us thus have sufficient faith to avoid the major sins of commission, but not enough faith to sacrifice our distracting obsessions or to focus on our omissions."

I was completely thunderstruck.

You see, I'm what you might consider a Molly Mormon. I've never smoked, never drank, never even tasted beer, married in the temple at nineteen - and yet I'm ever so guilty of those sins of omission. Those things I know I should be doing, and yet I don't seem to get around to doing them . . . because I'm too busy being obsessed with distractions. My biggest weakness? Blogging and the Internet.

I currently maintain six blogs-not with a whole lot of regularity on some of them, but the others receive regular attention. And I find that checking my email also consumes quite a lot of time. Not to mention various social networks, book sites . . . When it gets to the end of the day, I realize I've spent hours on the computer, and yet my visiting teaching calls didn't get made, I have no idea what my Scouts are doing at den meeting, and my scriptures ... wait, where did I put them again? Haven't seen them in a few days.

I already recognized this about myself, and blogged about it here. But it wasn't until I went searching for more information and found the above quote that I realized the seriousness of this tendency. Elder Maxwell said that persons who don't have enough faith hang onto these obsessions. That just hit me-am I demonstrating a lack of faith by hanging on to these bad habits? He also said that getting rid of them is a sacrifice. I can see that. It would be very hard for me to put them away or spend less time on them. Why?

I was raised to believe that if I wasn't constantly busy, I was being lazy. So now, as an adult, I feel the need to buzz around, working constantly, almost to my detriment. But it's mostly busy work, and not things I really need to be doing. Why am I not focusing on the things that really matter?

This isn't an answer I can give right now. In fact, we might consider this a part one of a two-part blog. I want the answer. I want to fix this flaw within myself. I want to have the faith to surrender these distractions. And when I figure out how to do that, I'll get back to you. I promise.

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Learn more about Tristi Pinkston

I've been a blogger for Families.com since August of 2006.

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