As Latter-day Saints it is important that we guard against complacency. It is important to realize that we must be aware of the dangers that may fall to our families. According to the dictionary complacency means a feeling of safety or satisfaction when an unknown danger is threatening. Complacency can be dangerous to everyone, but can be especially dangerous to families and individual testimonies.
An example of complacency would be a mother and father who think that their children are doing great. The family may not hold family home evening on a regular basis, just occasionally. Family prayer and scripture study are not held regularly either. The family is floating along, when suddenly one teenager begins to rebel. The parents were caught off guard and not prepared to handle the situation.
Now you may have a teenager rebel, even though you do hold regular family home evenings and scripture study, but you have planted the necessary seeds so that your teenager does know right from wrong. Hopefully your teenager will know how to pray, and will turn to that in difficult times. Doing the things that the church instructs does not guarantee that you will have a perfect family, but it does help you to weather the storms that family life will bring.
Similarly it is easy to become complacent in regards to building and strengthening your testimony. Complacency allows you to stand still, and you really can not do that in regards to the gospel. If you are not actively strengthening your testimony, you are allowing it to fade away. That is the reason that scripture study and personal prayer is so important.
Satan will try to lull us into complacency so that when the big trials hit we turn away from God instead of towards Him. It is important to take time each day to refill our spiritual reserves. This will help us guard against spiritual complacency. It is also important to help our families by having family home evenings, family scripture study, and family prayer.
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