The Flaxen Cords

"And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever." (2 Nephi 26:22)

I love the imagery here, because that is so often how satan works.  He doesn't convince us to go from being as close to perfect as we can be to the worst, most evil scum on the planet. We take baby steps to get there. We are only willing to cross the line so far, so you step some small measure past it, but the next time it's easier, and you step a little further, and so on, and so on, until the next thing you know, you're committing felonies. How did it get that far? Well, it's because satan didn't make us too uncomfortable right off the bat.  He used flaxen cords. These are thin, silky, and comfortable, yet at that point, he can lead us gently. over time, he keeps using stronger and stronger cords, and eventually binds us with very strong cords.

Something to watch carefully for. How can we identify this? How can we avoid it altogether? I think that  any time we rationalize by using phrases such as "just this once", or "it's not THAT bad", or "technically". We need to examine our lives and see where we are at.  It's a lot easier to shake loose from a strand or two of flaxen cord than if there are things more serious. Let's put these bindings behind us and keep those cords away from us.