Here is a letter I sent to Stuart who is serving as a missionary in the Spain, Malaga mission.
Dear Elder Himmer,
My greatest insight for today was during the 3rd hour at church. I was asked to teach a short lesson on avoiding temptation. So I studied the story of Abraham and Lot.
If you’ll remember, Lot and Abraham divided their wealth and Lot took the more fertile lands and Abraham was content with what was left over.
Lot moved next to the city of Sodom and faced his tent that direction. After a season, he moved into the city, but, as the story goes, he stayed true to the faith.
Abraham is visited by three messengers who indicate they are going to destroy Sodom. Abraham pleads to spare the city if 50 righteous people are found. Then 45, then 40, 30, 20, 10. Out of luck!
City to be destroyed. The messengers go into the city and visit Lot. The men of the city want to rape them. Bad choice, the gay coalition of Sodom are all struck blind by the messengers.
Lot is warned. He sneaks out at night, no problem because all the real bad dudes are blind, and he visits his daughters and sons-in-law, along with the grandchildren.
They choose to stay in the city and be destroyed.
Snapshot of the story:
Lot wants to go to heaven by living in Sodom (Babylon). You cannot serve two masters. He indicates that he never left the faith, but he chose to live in a geographical location that compromised his ability to obey.
His daughters married Sodomites; his grandchildren are not being raised in primary. They don’t sing “I am a child of God” or “Popcorn popping on the apricot tree” in their homes.
The day of destruction comes and Lot, his wife, and his two girls flee the city. Lot’s wife is torn, she can’t take the thought of leaving her grandchildren behind and she returns to the city and turns into salt.
Moral of the story:
Lot and his wife wanted to live on the edge. They chose friends who didn’t keep the standards. They ate in bars, watched R rated movies, and associated with friends whose standards were not in harmony with the Lord’s. According to their story they never left the faith.
How many of us try to live in both worlds? We want the blessings of Zion on Sunday, but even more, we want the temporary happiness of carnality during the week.
The ending of the story has grandma looking like a Morton salt statue in the middle of the desert. Sodom and Gomorrah are no longer, and Lot’s daughter’s get their father drunk and then have sex with him and both of them get pregnant, all because Hollywood is more fashionable, glitzy, and sexy than just obeying the commandments of God.
Sure love you.
Dad
