"Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, you must watch and pray always lest ye enter into temptation; for Satan desireth to have you, that he may sift you as wheat" (3 Nephi 18:18). Satan's greatest and most effective tactic is to get us on our own. If he can isolate us from our friends and family, from the church, and especially from the Lord, then his victory in possessing our souls is all but assured. Satan knows how valuable a support system of friends and family and the church really is. After all, he has his own legions of minions that he relies on to take us down. That is why he spends so much energy sowing discord and contention among us. If he can teach us to hate and mistrust each other, then he is like a farmer sifting wheat, tossing us all up in the air and letting the winds of tragedy and misunderstanding scatter us all away from each other. A single grain of wheat on its own isn't good for much. It wouldn't be able to feed much more than a single ant. But a single grain that is gathered together with thousands of others, all working together, can help to make up a part of the Bread of Life. Satan knows that when we are together we are mighty and he is not interested at all in trying to win in a fair fight. Any temptation we have that leads us to cut ourselves off from others, and especially from the ones we love the most and who love us the most, is playing right into his hands. I know that he can rage and howl and send his shafts in the whirlwind and his mighty hail to beat against us, but if we stand firm and true to each other, refusing to let strife tear us apart, built upon the rock of our Redeemer, then Satan shall not prevail against us.
