Where is your head?

A Fable by Aesop: The Wolf and the Crane:

A wolf who had a bone stuck in his throat hired a Crane, for a large sum, to put her head into his mouth and draw out the bone.

When the Crane had extracted the bone and demanded the promised payment, the Wolf, grinning and grinding his teeth, exclaimed: "Why, you have surely already had a sufficient recompense, in having been permitted to draw out your head in safety from the mouth and jaws of a wolf."

Aesop’s Moral:
In serving the wicked, expect no reward, and be thankful if you escape injury for your pains.

Aesop understood the relationship between good and evil, and the naiveté of anyone who thinks they can choose the things of the world and yet serve God. Christ himself told us: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24.)

There is, in fact, no lasting reward in serving Satan. The only way to escape eternal injury from such service is to take advantage of the atonement and repent of the sin and degradation that is the wages of service to the evil one.

Where is your head? Do you place your head in the mouth of the wolf from time to time? Do you tantalize yourself with things of the world that might be inappropriate for a true son or daughter of God? An inappropriate TV show? A racy story? A harsh reaction to your spouse or our friends? Road rage? White lies (which are not really white at all, but as black as any other lie)?

Satan daily offers us opportunities to violate our standards in one way or another, and sadly, probably all of us have succumbed at one time or another. Gladly, there is the atonement which offers repentance and renewal and a stronger desire to avoid temptation.

Interestingly, Satan tries to plant thoughts in our minds – in our heads – where our intelligence, our personality, our morals, our scruples, and our knowledge of the Gospel and the things of the world lie. He is subtle. He is skilled, but he cannot know your thoughts. He can only discern whether he is successful by your words and/or actions.

Elder Francis M. Gibbons, in October 1991 General Conference, stated:

“…while Satan can convey thoughts, he does not know whether these thoughts have taken root unless they are reflected either in our words or our actions.…

Elder Gibbons further stated:

“God, in His wisdom, "provided a channel of communication between Him and His children on earth that Satan, our common enemy, cannot invade. This is the channel of secret prayer. The significance of this to the Latter-day Saints is profound, for by this means we are able to communicate with our Heavenly Father in secrecy, confident that the adversary cannot intrude." (Church News, Conference Issues, October 12, 1991, p.21)

What a great blessing to know that there is a secret place we can go to communicate with our Father into which Satan cannot come. What a great blessing to know that Satan does not have the power to intrude into our thoughts. What a great challenge to know that the Savior does know our thoughts and the intents of our hearts (D. & C. 6:16; 1 Cor. 3:20; Heb. 4:12; Mosiah 24:12.). Elder Neal A. Maxwell said:

Satan's fatal flaw was that Satan "knew not the mind of God." (Moses 4:6.) Nor, apparently, did he care to find out about the will of God. He had his own plans and desires. … Only we can let him prevail in our lives. It is up to us. (Neal A. Maxwell, Things As They Really Are, p.42)

So Satan’s power does not extend to the holy places of our minds. Further, he does not have a true understanding of the GPEG (Alma 34:9) or the mind of God. We however, (and this is our great power over Satan) can know the mind and will of God.

President Wilford Woodruff said:

We should humble ourselves before the Lord, and be in a position to be filled with the spirit of our calling, with the Holy Ghost, and with the revelations of Jesus Christ, that we may know the mind and will of God concerning us… (The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, p.99 - p.100)

What a great blessing to know that not only can we understand in a general way God’s Plan, but we can, by forsaking the things of the world and turning to things eternal, gain an understanding of the mind and will of God for each of us. The GPEG extends to each of Our Father’s children in a unique way. Our thoughts and desires are known; our names are known to the Father and the Savior. Our pains and sufferings are known and absorbed in the atonement. Repentance absorbs our sins in the atonement, and the Lord remembers them no more (Doctrine and Covenants 58:42).

Remembers them no more. Remembers them no more. What a transcendent promise. We can be free of sin and suffering through the atonement. We can live lives of virtue and happiness. We can have the peace that the Lord gives in spite of adversity and trouble; in spite of heavy earthly cares if we can learn to keep our head out of the wolf’s mouth and learn to know the mind and will of God for us.

President Brigham Young said:

“All I ask of you is to apply your hearts to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and be Saints. I will not ask anything else on this earth of you, only to live so as to know the mind and will of God when you receive it, and then abide in it.” (Discourses of Brigham Young, p.229)

Let us so live as to honor Brother Brigham’s request – let us do whatever we need to do to know the mind and will of God concerning us, and abide in it.