Arm Yourselves

I taught the lesson today for the Beehives class.  As I planned this lesson I quickly realized that this lesson is not just for the youth, or even just the members of the LDS church, but for all people.  The lesson was titled "How do I guard my virtue." In class we discussed things like the meaning of virtue and why it's so important to continue learning these things week after week.  The definition I gave the girls for virtue was "the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong," with the emphasis on doing and avoiding.  Those are action words.  In order to be virtuous we have to act.  My mom had a quote I heard quite often.  She would say something like "You need to be polite," or "You need to clean your room." To which I would always reply "I knoooow!" My mom would then say, "Knowing and doing are two different things."  This holds true to being virtuous as well.  We can know all the right things to do, we can know all the right answers in church, but knowing things and actually doing them are two very different things.  While we need to study and learn all the days of our lives that knowledge will do us no good unless we apply it to our lives and truly LIVE the gospel. 
In today's world it can be very difficult to live a virtuous life.  Satan waits around every corner eager to thwart our efforts.  Luckily we have been given the protection we need.  In Ephesians 6:11-17 we learn about the armor of God.  With it we can protect ourselves from any wickedness in our path.  However, this also takes action.  It's not enough to have the armor.  It doesn't do us any good if it sits at home on display, or worse, lays forgotten in some corner.  We must put on this armor every day.  Even when wearing out armor we will face challenges.  The world will continue to go against us, and Satan will still try to bring you down.  He will work and fight against you until he knows your weakness, and then he will try to exploit that weakness until he sees you fall.  He will do this subtly at first.  He will use other people to lull you into a false sense of security.  Or he will use others to make you feel embarrassed about your armor, "It's so old fashioned, and uncool."  Don't listen.  Don't give in.  If we put our whole faith in the strength of the Lord we can protect ourselves against Satan's attacks.