As a 7-year-old boy living in the Arabian Peninsula, Patrick Kearon ignored his parents' warning to always wear his shoes as protection against desert threats. Instead, he wore flip-flops. As a result, his foot was stung by a scorpion, a painful experience.
"I had been both lazy and a little rebellious, and I paid a price for it," Elder Kearon of the Seventy reflected in his priesthood session address Saturday evening.
"I testify from my own experience as a boy, and as a man, that disregarding what we know to be right, whether through laziness or rebelliousness, always brings undesirable and spiritually damaging consequences," he said.
"When we choose another path from the one we know to be right, as taught by our parents and leaders, and as confirmed to our own hearts by the Holy Ghost, it is like stepping onto the desert sand in flip-flops instead of shoes," Elder Kearon said. "We then seek to justify our rebellious behavior. We tell ourselves we're not really doing anything that wrong, that it doesn't really matter, and that nothing all that bad will result from letting go just a little from the Iron Rod. Perhaps we console ourselves with thought that everyone else is doing it – or doing worse – and we won't be negatively affected anyway. We somehow convince ourselves that we are the exception to the rule and therefore immune to the consequences of breaking it."
Elder Kearon drew a lesson from the story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies in the Book of Mormon who, becoming a righteous people, not only laid down their weapons of war but also their rebellion (see Alma 23:7).
"They qualified themselves for the Lord's healing and peace, and so can we," Elder Kearon remarked.
He said healing and relief are found "only when we bring ourselves to the feet of the Great Physician, our Savior Jesus Christ. We must lay down our weapons of rebellion (and we each know what they are). We must lay down our sin, vanity and pride. We must give up our desires to follow the world, and to be respected and lauded by the world. We must cease fighting against God and instead, give our whole hearts to Him, holding nothing back. Then, He can heal us. Then, He can cleanse us from the venomous sting of sin."
Like surviving a minefield by staying in the tracks of the vehicle ahead, safety is found in the path shown by leaders, he said.– R. Scott Lloyd
