An "ah-hah" moment...

Nephi described the children of Israel thus:  "...the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness...or the easiness of (the way), there were many who perished."   1 Ne 17:41

The quote for the day in one of my thought books was from John Taylor:
"Never do an act that you would be ashamed of man knowing, for God sees us always, both day and night, and if we expect to live and reign with him in eternity, we ought to do nothing that will disgrace us in time."
In other words, be COMPLETELY honest and fair at ALL times.

The author then went on to explain:
"Developing integrity of heart is not simply a matter of personal determination and willpower.  It is accomlished only through the enabling power of the atonement of Jesus Christ."

And the "ah-hah" comes now:
We are human, with carnal desires!  Selfishness is something that we must constantly fight against.  In order to have a pure and perfect heart, we must get help, because we can't do it on our own; we're all too imperfect!  We (I) must learn to go to my Savior for help, and then let Him do it!  I need to let go of some of my pride that makes me want to say "I can do it by myself!"  The hard part is letting Christ's atonement help me... but it's really a very simple  principle. 
So, is it really hard, or do I just make it that way?  I guess there's a reason that FAITH is the first principle of the gospel:  it's the most foundational one, and sometimes the hardest one!!  It's the one that I need before I can gain any others;  it's one that I constantly need to get better and better at;  it's the one that connects us all to heaven!