Thursday, October 8, 2015

Spiritual Mud Cookies



Recently I viewed a video.  It made me sick.  For generations poor Haitians have been making, serving, selling, and eating Mud Cookies.  



This is what they eat to survive.  They work for days to mix the mud batter, carefully spoon every drop on to these sheets.  They purchase the dirt to make the cookies.  Sometimes they even have to go in to debt to buy it.  If it rains they could loose their investment.  When the cookies have baked in the sun they bag them and sell them.  I see images of women and children eating them.  They grimace.  There is little to no nutritional value in the cookies.  The mothers realize this, but they say, at least it is something to fill their hungry stomachs.  It makes them sick.

 I feel so guilty.  We have all of the food we could want.  We waste time during the day reading, watching movies, or checking our social media.  We sweep our warm clean floors and complain if ants or flies happen to invade.  We have every convenience at our disposal.  I can push a button to wash clothes and dishes.  I turn a handle to get hot or cold water.  I can walk or drive to a fully stocked grocery store.  If for some reason I couldn't afford any of these conveniences I would be able to find assistance to help provide for my families needs.

I was discussing this with my husband the other night.  I was telling him how blessed we are.  I just felt like I needed to do more than I am doing.  What is the purpose of my life.  I don't think Heavenly Father sent me to this earth to keep house.  I want to go to Haiti and teach those women how to never make another mud cookie, ever again.  I want to go to Africa and dig wells.  I want to go to India and teach about how aids is spread.  I want to go to Russia and lift spirits and hold orphaned babies.  I want to go to South Korea and save the abandoned children.  I want to got to Ethiopia and  feed the people.  I want to go to Syria and encourage.  I want to have a meaningful life.

My sweet husband in a moment of inspiration said, "We live here and there are people all around us who have been eating spiritual mud cookies for generations.  It is up to us to teach them what is better."  I knew that was right.  He was absolutely right.  We know the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We have the ability to open our mouths and share it with everyone that will listen.  We have the scriptures.  We can teach others how to feast spiritually.  This is my purpose.  This is why I get to live with all of these conveniences.  So that I can share Christs message of hope and love with all of those searching.

In the end, Gods work and his glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.  Our work should be to point others to Christ.  We can only do that if we are lights shining for him.
  This morning as I was cleaning I was thinking of my husband and I's discussion and I realized that sometimes I eat spiritual dirt cookies.  Just today I followed a link of gossip on my news-feed.  It led me through a waste land of mud slinging.  The whole time I was grimacing.  It made me sick.  Finally I pulled myself away.  I had partaken of a spiritual mud cookie.  Knowing there was no spiritual nutritional value, and with a mound of other spiritual food around me, I had chosen the mud.

Recognizing it for what it is might help me to leave it and opt for a spiritual feast in the future.  The Savior has asked us to come to him for he is the living water, he is the bread of life.  I in turn invite all to "Come unto Christ."  Through him you will find everlasting happiness.