Satan's Envy

Last night, in Stake Conference, one of the speakers, Elder Fallabella, I think, mentioned that Satan can't have a family. He can't get married or raise any number of children. That option simply isn't open to him. When I heard that, I leaned over to my mom and whispered, "So that's why he's trying to destroy the family; he's jealous." And now that I think about it, there are other things that Satan's probably jealous of as well.

One of the primary things Satan can never have is a body. So, as a aspect of his envy, he tries to get us to abuse, misuse, demean, and even destroy ours. He encourages us to use toxic or otherwise dangerous substances. He tempts us to mistreat our bodies and the bodies of others. He whispers into our minds hurtful things about our bodies until we believe them and start to feel badly about our bodies. And, in extreme cases, he manages to convince some people to destroy their own bodies. And he does all this because he will never have a body and he's jealous of the bodies we have.

He's also jealous of our freedom. We have so many options to choose what we want to do and who we want to be, but Satan has already made the choice about what he would be and do, and I'm pretty sure it's too late for him to change his mind now, even though I'd like to think that there's hope for even him. But, in envy of our freedom, he tries to limit it by catching us in temptations and addictions. He tries to control us through subtlety and manipulation to undermine our freedom to choose for ourselves. We can choose our own destiny, but he tries to convince us that we can't, all because he's jealous that we kept our first estate of agency, and he didn't.

Lastly, Satan is jealous of our future. If we keep the commandments and live righteously, God will grant us additional blessings and power (gradually, I assume, as we continue to prove our worthiness of it) until we ultimately become as He is. Satan had that same potential in the Pre-mortal existence, but he tried to claim it early. When God refused him, he rebelled, and he lost his chance at Godhood forever. Now, Satan does everything in his power to derail us from the destiny God laid out for us. He tempts us to sin so we won't be worthy of God's blessings. He tempts us to rebel against God, as he did, so we would become miserable, as he is.

But the encouraging thing about this thought is that since Satan is trying to destroy us, we must have something good enough to be worth his effort of trying to destroy. And we do! We all have bodies. Many of us have capable, even powerful, bodies, and we can do great things with them. We have our freedom to choose what we want to be, what we want to do with our lives, and whose example we want to follow. We have the opportunity to have our own families - not just for this life, but forever! We have the potential to have an eternal increase, and to eventually create our own worlds for our children to live on.

We have such wonderful blessings and opportunities available to us. Don't let Satan's jealousy destroy yours.