Gospel Lessons From Chocolate Milk, Part 2, Displacement

Recently I watched a Dave Ramsey video in which he drew an interesting analogy. I have been pondering about it for the last week or so. I've changed his analogy slightly, and have my own conclusions. Since I have another post about lessons I learn from chocolate milk, I'll call this part 2. 

Suppose you filled a glass with water and then poured a little bit of chocolate milk in it. The entire glass would become cloudy. If you continued to pour in chocolate milk, eventually all the water would spill out over the top and there wouldn't be any water left, just milk. 

Then suppose you took the same glass, which now contains chocolate milk, and started to pour water into it. At first there would appear to be little change. Over time, however, the glass would start to clear until all of the chocolate milk were displaced. 

We did this experiment recently for a family home evening. One of my kids noted that the water became cloudy much quicker than it became clear again. 

Now consider glass as our soul. The water represents things of the spirit, and the chocolate milk (for this example only) represents things that offend the spirit. 

23 And that which doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness.
24 That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.
(Doctrine and Covenants 50:23-24)

We can choose to fill our souls with light or darkness. 

 22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23)

If we stop pouring milk into the class, it doesn't make the glass clean again. Water has to displace the milk--the milk has to be pushed out. 

Refining fire, go through my heart,
   Illuminate my soul;
Scatter thy life through every part,
   And sanctify the whole.
(Charles Wesley)

I've enjoyed pondering this analogy. I'd be interested to know what other lessons you can draw from the analogy.  

Easy To Be Entreated

A week ago during family scripture study we read Alma chapter 7. It was my turn to share a thought about one of the scriptures that we had read that night, and I was particularly impressed by verse 23. 

 23 And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.

I was particularly struck by the phrase "easy to be entreated."  Unsure that my kids knew what "entreated" meant, we looked it up in the dictionary. We found that it means, basically, to ask someone to do something. So if we are "easy to be entreated" people will feel at ease to ask us to do things. We tried to think of ways we could be more easily entreated, and what makes someone easily entreated. 

During the week several problems happened to people around me, problems to which I knew the answer or a simpler way of solving the problem. If people had asked me for help, I could have saved them a lot of time, and in some instances, lots of money. These people were so focused on solving their own problem that they didn't consider outside resources. Later, I asked them why they didn't ask me for help. They responded that they thought I would treat the situation lightly - either blow it off as unimportant or chastise them for getting into the situation in the first place. Had I been more easily entreated, perhaps those problems could have been resolved more easily. 

Originally when I read scripture in Alma, I recalled the scripture in James 1:5.  

5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

"Upbraid" means to find fault or scold. James is teaching that if we ask God a sincere question, God will grant us wisdom and not scold us for asking the question. God is easily entreated. 

I have lots of problems and challenges. Most of the time I am so caught up in trying to resolve the problems that I don't ask for God's help. He knows the simpler way. He knows the bigger picture. I should entreat him more. 

A God of Good Things To Come

Last week one of my best lifelong friends was married.  The event brought back a flood of memories and a few tears. As Ty and I have similar surnames we frequently sat next to each other in school and either shared a locker or had adjacent lockers. In college we roomed together.  After college we worked at the same place across the street from the Riverside Country Club in Provo. Many of our friends got married during this time. When Ty moved to Cincinnati, I stopped by to see him a couple times when business took me to adjacent states. Once we even had the same flight from Cincinnati to Salt Lake. He was returning home to see his family, and I was returning home from a business trip. We were quite surprised to see each other, and considered it a tender mercy of God that we could spend a few hours catching up.  Later, Ty moved back to Utah and eventually we were roommates again. Ty moved out when I got married. We were 30.

A decade and a half after my wife and I were married a miracle happened – Ty met someone, they fell in love, with each other, at the same time, and married. It was a bit ironic to me that their reception was held at the Riverside Country Club in Provo, across the street from where we had worked 20 years earlier.

I wonder if it would have made a difference to Ty if on one of those work days 20 years ago, God would have put one arm around Ty’s shoulder and with the other pointed across the street to the country club and said, “Ty, it is going to take another 20 years, but you are going to find a wonderful woman to marry, and you will have your reception right there across the street. Keep the faith. It will happen.” What kind of a difference would that have made to him, to have that promise to hold on to. Whenever life would knock him down, he would have that promise in his back pocket.

To me that promise is the definition of hope.  Acting on the promise if the definition of faith.

Dating – or finding someone to date – is not our challenge anymore, but there are plenty of others. Additionally, friends around me have heavy burdens and challenges of their own. How awesome would it be for the Lord to put his arm around each of us and say, “It’s ok.  In just a little while this situation will be resolved. Hang on. Keep the faith.”

Elder Holland related an experience where we wanted to call back through the ages to a time 30 years earlier when he had been discouraged. “Don’t give up, boy. Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead—a lot of it—30 years of it now, and still counting. You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.”   (Conference October 1999)

Elder Holland concluded that talk with this counsel. “Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.”

It turns out that Ty did have a promise in his back pocket. At the reception he told me that for the last year he has had this scripture impressed on his mind:

“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

Ty trusted in that promise and moved forward with faith. May I always trust in the God of good things to come, and similarly move forward with faith.