Sabbath Blog: "The Little Things"

Since it was fast Sunday for my ward today, I think I'll start out with a scrumpdiddlyumcious childhood story about food just to make your fast a wee bit harder to test how righteous you truly are. Just kidding, that would be mean. But seriously....don't read if you are starving.

I'm a dork. I gave up trying to be cool a long time ago. To demonstrate the validity of this point take note of the following: I used to watch Martha Stewart in the morning during summer instead of the normal kid stuff like...well...I don't even know....I wasn't normal. sigh. Anyway, one day the domestic goddess made these cookies that rocked my cookie world as I once knew it. "Lime Meltaways" (Believe me: I do not make this stuff up: http://www.marthastewart.com/ recipe/lime-meltaways-from-the-martha-stewart-show?autonomy_kw=lime%20meltaways&rsc=header_1) was what she called this confectionery goodness, and I was dying to bake some myself.

My mom wrote down the recipe for me, and a few weeks later I got to work. I carefully followed each direction excited to (in all honesty) get the darn things baked and out of the oven so that I could eat them all. Sadly, upon my first little nibble of the much anticipated Lime Meltaway I was sorely disappointed. But, I had my pride to protect. Smiling innocently, I dashed over to my dad an gave him several of my prized cookies. Being the good man that he is, he downed every single one without a single word of cooking criticism or complaint.

An hour or so later, he was violently ill. What a trooper. That's a dad that loves his daughter. Turns out on the recipe my mom had written for me salt was listed as "1/4 salt." Having little cooking experience at the time, I had guessed that "1/4" salt must mean "1/4 cup of salt." Now I know that the only time you put that much salt into anything it's because you're making homemade play dough or an ex foliating hand scrub---both of which are never internally ingested..hopefully...sometimes play dough crosses that line...grubby, little kids are disgusting like that). It wasn't until later that I realized that Lime Meltaways are supposed to be made with only 1/4 of a TEASEPOON of salt. Minor difference. Poor Dad :(

What's the point? Here goes....

I think it's the little things in the gospel that are often the most important. You barely add any salt to a recipe in baking (yeah, sorry to make the uber cheezily obvious connection) but if left out or exaggerated the consequences are extremely different. The commandments to read our scriptures, say our prayers, go to church, love our families, attend the temple regularly, serve our fellow men, pay our tithing, etc. often seem mundane and not the crucial aspects in our lives that they truly are.

As we know, it works quite the contrary. Matthew 5:48 reads: "Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Even though this is impossible for us to do by ourselves, luckily we have our loving savior Jesus Christ who takes care of our shortcomings when even our best just isn't enough. We just have to take the time and faith to rely on Him. However, this leaves little wiggle room, if any, to slack off on our part. And just think of the blessings we forfeit when we choose to live up to less than our potential: "There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated."

More food for thought:
*I had a seminary teacher that often stressed our greatest sins are often not the ones of commission but those of omission.
*Going back to the salt theme: "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. " (Matthew 5:14-16)
*Hmm...I had much more but this blog is sort of going downhill so I think I'll end here. haha

Anyway, the church is true! Enjoy your day :)