The Fall of Lucifer

I read 2 Nephi 23 - 24 today. I got to thinking as I was reading the first half of chapter 24 about Lucifer and his sin against God. We all know that Lucifer's sin was to exalt himself above God. He felt he had a better way than Heavenly Father, but not only that, we are taught that he also wanted to be above God in glory. He sought to completely dethrone God.

As I read this, I am in awe at the stupidity and impatience of the devil. Because when you boil it down, what Satan wanted was exactly what God wanted to give him, His glory. However, Satan did not want to wait for it. He did not want to do it the right way. He wanted God's glory without working for it. Without proving he was worthy of it.

This same impatience he has not transferred over to an entire nation, our nation. American's are a very, very impatient people. We don't like to wait for anything, not even the 10 seconds someone in front of us takes before they notice the light has turned green. We honk that horn and if we are really in a bad mood, holler some choice words out the window to let the world know just how unhappy we are....just like a 2 year old.

Impatience is at the root of it, pride. We feel we are more important than everyone else on the planet and more important that anything. Impatience and pride is what caused our economic slump 2 years ago. People not willing to work, save the money and buy what they need. Instead they use credit cards and eventually pay for what the bought 10 times over! The sheer stupidity makes me laugh. And yet I fell into that trap too. I would be a liar if I said I had no credit card debt. Luckily I started working my way out of that pit years ago and my wife and I are close to being debt free.

I would say just like charity, Heavenly Father can help us change our attitude and choose to be humble. And as we grow to become more humble, patience will come with it. Very few truly humble people are impatient. And as we cultivate the one, the other will follow if we try. Let us all try and be a bit more humble and a LOT more patient, especially with those around us, and ourselves. Until tomorrow.