The Scorpion and the Turtle

"A turtle was happily swimming along a river when a scorpion hailed it from the shore.

A scorpion, being a very poor swimmer, asked a turtle to carry him on his back across a river. "Are you mad?" exclaimed the turtle. "You'll sting me while I'm swimming and I'll drown."

"My dear turtle," laughed the scorpion, "if I were to sting you, you would drown and I would go down with you, and drown as well. Now where is the logic in that?"

The turtle thought this over, and saw the logic of the scorpion's statement. "You're right!" cried the turtle. "Hop on!" The scorpion climbed aboard and halfway across the river the scorpion gave the turtle a mighty sting. As they both sank to the bottom, the turtle resignedly said:

"Do you mind if I ask you something? You said there'd be no logic in your stinging me. Why did you do it?"

"It has nothing to do with logic," the drowning scorpion sadly replied. "I don't know. I can't help myself, that's just the way I am.""

"To defeat Satan on the battleground of change we must NEVER say "That's just the way I am". To win our battles with Satan we must accept the fact that there is no desire, no habit, no addiction so deeply ingrained and permanent that it is inescapable. " --Putting on the Armor of God


This is such a great analogy to me. I was the scorpion in this story for a long time...I would use the excuse of "Its just the way I am"...but I testify to you that we can change...thru Christ, the gospel  and the Atonement we can overcome anything we desire to overcome.

Thats the trick though...do we desire to change?

Another quote from Putting on the Armor of God is "We must understand the difference between merely CONTROLLING our bad habits and ALLOWING Christ to change our hearts and nature so that we no longer want the habits."