Right ≠ Easy

This evening's youth activity was a Guess Who Said It trivia game, with each quote coming from a General Authority or a work of fiction. Some of the fictional characters had some surprisingly profound and inspiring quotes. When I discovered that a number of the quotes shared a similar message, I knew I had to blog about it, as much as I would prefer not to.

A few of the quotes in the trivia game said something along the lines of this quote from Grandmother Willow from Disney's Pocahontas: "Sometimes, the right path is not the easiest one."

In fact, it rarely is. The things God asks us to do are often difficult, partly because they require moral strength to do, and partly because God intends us to gain moral strength by doing them.

Conversely, the things Satan tempts us to do are easy. He doesn't have to make us jump through hoops to accomplish his designs. All it takes for evil to win is for good people to do nothing, and doing nothing is a piece of cake. And when he does tempt us to do something, the things he tempts us to do are often aligned with what the natural man is naturally inclined to do. So he frequently tempts us to just do whatever comes naturally, which is often just as easy as, and sometimes easier than, doing nothing.

In contrast, doing the right thing is almost always hard. In fact, in a BYU Address, President Eyring quoted his mother as having said "If you are on the right path, it will always be uphill." This is sometimes discouraging, as it means that any time we're trying to do the right thing, we're going to find it difficult. And even more unfortunately, the inverse is not always true; experiencing difficulty is not always a sure sign that one is on the right path.

The good news is that God will help us find the right path, and He will help us follow it. Following the right path isn't always easy, but one never has to do it alone. Many saints and angels, and Christ Himself have walked that path before us, leading the way, and many saints and angels, and God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost will walk with us as we follow them. Through them, we can obtain all the help we'll need, and we will need help, to follow the right path.