Lately, the only way I can motive my two-year old daughter to go on a walk is by agreeing to search for "treasure rocks" while we're out. And so as we're out, we stop every once and a while and I (the two-year-old chooses to supervise from her stroller) look for rocks that are white and "treasure-y".
On yesterday's walk, two of the rocks we found were buried half underground and when we pulled them out, part of each rock was covered in dirt. "This treasure rock has some yuckies on it," my daughter noted as we added each of these rocks to our collection.
Since then, I've been thinking about those yuckie treasure rocks, and about how most things in this life--just like those rocks--can't escape being on this earth without a little bit of yuckies. Many things in mortal life are not perfect--that includes at times church policies, church leaders, and fellow church members. But if we let the yuckies that are so often easily apparent on the outside dissuade us from picking up a rock, we miss out on the treasure.
Christ is the ultimate rock, and He invites all to come unto Him and to pick up His gospel--one of God's greatest treasures. I have striven my while life to do this, and inevitably have come across a few yuckies. These yuckies have, at times, lead me to doubt, question, or feel insecure about my beliefs in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When this happens, I try to remember the words of Elder Holland:
This works. Additional knowledge has come to me--both by direct answers to my questions and by reminders of other truths that resonate in my heart and make holding onto the rock worthwhile, even when there's yuckies on it.
I know it will work for you too.
