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TheDiscipleMD

One evening, many years ago, I gave an assignment to one of my sons, then fourteen, to take the garbage to the bottom of the driveway. At the time we lived in a house that was secluded in the woods and the driveway was rather long. Like most teens he delayed doing the chore and as I headed upstairs for bed I reminded him that he needed to take the can down before he went to bed. He told me he would. Early the next morning I arose and got ready to leave the house only to find this note sitting on the kitchen table, which read:

“Dad, I didn’t forget to take the garbage out. But as I started down the driveway I thought I saw something so I turned back. Can’t risk it!”

I must admit I laughed! The closing thought of “can’t risk it” has stayed with me and although many years have since passed I still tease him from time to time about the incident. “Can’t risk it!” He never explained what he meant by those words, but I derived from the note that he thought the risk of something bad happening to him while walking down the dark driveway, wasn’t worth the reward of taking out the garbage. And who knows, maybe he was right.

Perhaps all of us should think, “Can’t risk it!”, when we head into dangerous territories of life. Most of us sense when we are getting ourselves into spiritual trouble. But somehow we neglect to stop and ask, if metaphorically ‘taking out the garbage’, really is worth the risk when so much could be at stake? Do we really want to put in jeopardy our spouses, our children, our reputation, or very lives for something that is really not that important?”

“Can’t risk it” is a wonderful motto to keep in mind whenever we are contemplating going against the word of God. All of us have doubts from time to time when it comes to our spiritual understanding of things. But the potential consequences of abandoning faith in the Savior can be catastrophic, not only to us, but to all our loved ones. When it comes to our obedience to the principles as taught by Jesus Christ, we need to evaluate the consequences of our actions and it’s impact on our faith. Our eternal welfare is one thing we don’t want to put at risk!