I don't have that answer

Reading in Alma today - it's about the Lamanites going to war against the Nephites (the good guys because they follow the Lord and are not the aggressors). About how the former Nephites - people who knew or had access to the truth, go to what we will call the dark side. Not only do they simply join the dark side, but they get so much darker. The story relates how it is these ex-good guys become the military leaders of the Lamanites. Descendants of people who once had the priesthood and the truth, but found it inconvenient to their lifestyle and choices.

It's not that much different today. People who leave the church are so often fully owned by Satan's hand that simply leaving the church isn't enough. Satan has his suckers in deep enough to ruin the man - why not go the next step and have the ruined man ruin everyone else they can?

It seems like it's kinda like a bag of potatoes. One potato going bad not only smells real bad, but destroys all other potatoes that they touch. And they can do it so quickly.

A spiritual core of love, strength, kindness and faith can become a core of tar, poison, stench and hatred.

It's a human travesty. But here's my thing today: what if the bad potato is someone you love? What if some of his or her issues are not completely their fault? What if I caused, or was the root of some of those poisons?

If it's a potato, you can hold your nose and throw it out, then clean up the remaining mess. You can't do that with someone you love. You can ache for them, for the pain they feel, for the hard life they have chosen. You can reach out, and plead to the Lord. You can feel for their pain - but you can't reach in and take over. You can't make their decisions for them. This has to be how the Lord feels about us. It might give each of us as parents some idea of the pain the Lord feels for us - and perhaps the joy too.

As parents, and as a human being, I can't allow the bad decisions of others to shut me down. Others have their issues, and they will pay whatever price the Lord decides for their decisions. I will pay my own, and we will all agree with the Lord that his decisions are just. But there is a balance - to feel for the pain of someone you love who is failing in some way, vs having it shut my life down too. The Lord will fight my battles, and I can't take ownership of any issues but my own, as doing so indicates either a lack of understanding, or of faith. Those issues don't belong to me, and to wrest them away from the Lord is not my place. It even goes so far as to say "I don't trust you, Father, to take this issue. I'll take it".

And when we do, we can't handle it. We never could.

I choose faith - my wayward children and I - we're all wayward in some way - will have our day with the Lord. He knows how weedy our field was when we started, and how weedy it was when we finished. Only he knows that. He has already paid the price - he has the weed killer. All we can do is choose faith, and make our fields as flowerful as possible in the meantime.