Thoughtful Thursday: Awake, my soul!

Today, I read a post from a blog called Finding Joy that I really identified with. It's a great post--click here to read it. You know the way you feel when you outright messed up? When you snap at your husband, or speak a cross word to your child, or stomp out of the house with a glowering grimace on your face. You spend a few minutes (or longer) seething and wallowing. And then you realize that you've fallen into a trap that is much too familiar. You've made the same mistake for the umpteenth time, and you despair of ever being smart enough to avoid that trap.

Well, at least, that's how I feel when I make mistakes for the billionth time. Someone else felt that way, too.

2 Nephi 4:27-28

"And why should I yield to sin, because of my flesh? Yes, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry because of mine enemy?

Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul."

If Nephi, one of the greatest prophets of the Book of Mormon, felt this way, then maybe it's ok for me to feel that way sometimes, too. Especially if I can remember this better:

"O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh...

...I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my rightousness."
(2 Nephi 4:34-35) 

 I love the phrase, "Awake, my soul!" It's like our souls are our watchguards, keeping an eye out for those familiar traps. It's as if Nephi's saying, "Wake up, soul, and stay awake! Keep watch for any pitfalls coming my way!"

I really, really want to avoid that trap the next time it comes around. But if I don't quite make it, I'm so thankful that Christ is there to pull me out again!