I know people, people whom I love, go astray.  I too, find myself wandering from the intended path.  I’m sure it is a common theme among religious folk, the “straight and narrow” path.  The path can also be one’s direction to success in school, work, or goals in general. I will focus on the path that leads us to sit among our brothers and sisters in the Mansions of Heaven.  The straight and narrow is seen in Matthew 7:14 “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”  It is understood that to be on this straight and narrow we need to be obedient, that entails many many things; scripture study, daily prayer, service, attending church services, fasting, and constant refinement of ourselves.  Doing all that is exhausting.  It is easy to say it’s not so bad if I don’t read my scriptures today, next thing is putting off prayer.  Soon enough you find yourself way off the path you were leading and it happens very subtly and quietly, but very rapidly.  I have seen it in my own life and the life of many people I love dearly. The hard part for me is to witness these struggling souls fight their way back onto the path, it’s a fight that seems to be lost before it’s began.  One may think they are back on the path until it gets overwhelming real quick then suddenly it’s back to being astray.  How disheartening is that?

I see the struggle each individual has trying to get back on the path, it is a wrestle with many different emotions, people, and unseen forces.  The struggle seems to only be apparent when one is trying to be “good” or  while safely on the “straight and narrow.”  Why do you think it is easier to just live life off the path and just do your own thing?  The fight is hard because we try to do what the path requires of us and that is hard.  Well maybe we are looking at it all wrong.  Who ever said that we need to fight our way back onto the straight and narrow?  Why can’t we just start where we are?  If we are obedient and do what God expects of us, how is it that the path won’t start below our feet where we stand?  Isn’t repentance an opportunity to choose again?  So that path will be laid out in front of us and we can take it to our Heavenly Dwelling?

“A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.” -Proverbs 16:9

Each of us is an individual with different personalities, experiences, feelings, thoughts, and beliefs.  Each time we choose again, or repent, we will have a different path because we will have different feelings, thoughts, and experience in turn our path will be much different, why go back to the “old” path?  The Gospel isn’t designed to be waked on, it’s designed to be lived therefore felt! We need to find ourselves within the Everlasting Gospel and we will all do it differently so our paths will be different and they start and stop in different places.  In short, next time you fall off the “straight and narrow”  grab it and bring it to where you ended up and start living again!  This Gospel is real and eternally perfect.  The ability to make mistakes forms a beautiful path that will be the path to eternal happiness if  we continue to repent and progress.  The fight is won the moment the choice is made.

“O then, my beloved brethren, repent ye, and enter in at the strait gate, and continue in the way which is narrow, until ye shall obtain eternal life.” -Jacob 6:11