“For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance;” (D&C 1:31). I've been thinking about the word allowance in connection with this scripture. When parents teach their children about the value of money and developing a good work ethic and incentivizing them to do their chores, they give them an allowance. This allowance is typically a gift from parents to their children. The children may do things to earn their allowance, but it is not as though the chores they do are generating income for the family so at the end of the day this allowance stems mainly from the generosity of the parents and their aforementioned desire to teach them valuable lessons. In a similar way, God gives us an allowance. “I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another— I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.” (Mosiah 3:20-22). One of the greatest dangers that sin brings with it is that we are cut off from our Heavenly Father's allowance. We can no longer in good conscience ask for nor expect to receive our daily bread. This life is hard enough when we are living worthily enough to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost to lead and guide us. We all know what it's like to have sinned and lost out on our allowance and we all know that it is much, much worse. The great news is that the process for having our allowance reinstated is quite simple. All we have to do is sincerely repent of and forsake our sins and the Savior will take care of the rest. I hope none of us tries to go too long without an allowance and that if there are sins in our lives that are currently cutting us off from our allowance, that we will have the humility and the strength of will to let them go so that we do not have to continue living below our privilege.
