The Law of Chastity

We've started another section of my Family Foundations class regarding The Law of Chastity. Below, I'm sharing one of the posts I made for this class, not because I think what I wrote is worth sharing, but because as I'm studying and understanding more and more the "why" of keeping the Law of Chastity, my testimony is being strengthened and I know now what I wish I had known so much sooner. I mention several talks below, but the talk I loved most on this topic was Elder Holland's "Of Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments". I know that we were given commandment to keep the Law of Chastity and to uphold the sanctity of life. I know that Satan is out to thwart the plan of God and to lead us away, and he's successful. For those of us who have made mistakes, we have the privilege of being able to repent and to be made clean and pure again. I am so grateful for the gift of the Atonement! Hopefully this will help you gain further understanding as it has helped me!

I was particularly touched by Elder Holland’s talk “Of Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments”. In speaking of the future he said, “But the future, at least any qualitative aspect of it, must be vigorously fought for. It won’t “just happen” to your advantage. Someone said once that the future is waiting to be seized, and if we do not grasp it firmly, then other hands, more determined and bloody than our own, will wrench it from us and follow a different course.” Outside of ourselves, there are really only two people who are so concerned with our commitment to the law of chastity; Heavenly Father and Satan. The future of our souls, of our spirit and body, is what is at stake as taught by Elder Holland. If we wish to remain morally clean and to be worthy of the blessings the Lord has for us, including exaltation and eternal life, we have to make it happen. Heavenly Father has provided the plan and tools by which we can achieve this success, but make no mistake that Satan has readied his arsenal against us. In his talk entitled “Things as they Really Are”, Elder Bednar stated, “Because a physical body is so central to the Father’s plan of happiness and our spiritual development, we should not be surprised that Lucifer seeks to frustrate our progression by tempting us to use our bodies improperly. One of the ultimate ironies of eternity is that the adversary, who is miserable precisely because he has no physical body, invites and entices us to share in his misery through the improper use of our bodies.” Daily, we must be careful, we must be “steadfast and immovable” (Alma 1:25). 

Elder Richard G. Scott, in his talk “Making the Right Choices” said that as we learn to make right choices, we “will have confidence to do right and overcome strong negative peer pressure and bad influences.”  We are the ones responsible for what we think and ultimately do. We must, as it says in D&C 10:5: “Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work”. With the Lord on our side, we can expect to see miracles in abiding by the Law of Chastity.