Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Boiling Frogs



From the Kitchen of: Sister Poppe
Recipe: Boiled Frog

First, you fill a pot with lukewarm tap water. After this is completed, you lovingly set your frog in the temperate H2O. Next, you place the pot on your stove top burner and gently increase the heat over time. You must be careful to not increase the heat too quickly, as the frog will catch on to what you are doing and hop out of the pot. As you incrementally increase the heat, you will subsequently cook the frog. When the frog is cooked through, remove the pot from the heat and enjoy with your favorite condiment and a sprinkling of sea salt.                                                                                                                                                     
*Note, you can also cook a frog over a campfire, though this should only be done by experienced frog boilers.                                                                                                                                             


Every one knows that when you decide to boil a frog, the above method is the most universally accepted. You can't just plop a living frog in a vat of boiling water because he will look at you and communicate with his eyes, "Ain't nobody got time for that!" and hop on out. When Heavenly Father gives us trials, he uses the prescribed frog boiling method.  The point of trials is to mold us and help us grow. By selectively shaping our trials--or incrementally increasing the heat--He is able to slowly make us more desirable (and perhaps more enjoyable with our favorite condiment and a sprinkling of sea salt). If we were thrown into something we couldn't handle, we would jump ship and forego the learning opportunity, as the frog does when he is haphazardly placed in boiling water. Just as the frog is removed from the pot when he is done being cooked, we are delivered from our trials when we have learned all that we can learn from that specific situation.  That doesn't mean that there won't be more trials down the road; if you've had one delicious boiled frog, chances are you'll want another one. With every situation we encounter though, we are tested in the same general way. I'm sure the frog is slightly uncomfortable as the mercury rises, but by the time he wants out of the pot it is already too late. When we find ourselves waist deep in a trial, we often can't turn around and leave, we just have to wait it out. Luckily the end of our trials don't often include physical death, though it will include the death of an unbecoming character flaw, lack of faith, or other below par characteristics.

I have given a lot of thought to the frog boiling method of doling out trials recently. In a personal way, I have realized that my mission has been a large pot of water that has increased in temperature slowly over the last six months. When I decided to serve, my father told me that I was prompted to serve a mission so The Lord could humble me.  I think he was approximately 23 percent joking and 77 percent serious. At the point in time he said that, I was reluctant to believe it. I was very content with the person I was; I loved being me. As the water has slowly begun to include the beginning bubbles that lead to a rolling boil, I have acknowledged that I struggle with pride and it is a characteristic of mine that needs to die. I have been humbled on a daily basis since entering the mission field and it has been such a blessing in my life. I cringe at the person I was five years ago, three years ago, even six months ago. I'm not proposing that every one who serves a mission needs to be humbled, or that every missionary views their mission as a trial. For me though, 18 months in water that is inching toward boiling is exactly what I need to grow. For others, a death in the family, financial difficulty, a serious injury, or a medical malady may be prescribed. Whatever the case may be, The Lord is always smart enough to ease us into a trial and then take us out of the pot when we are finished.


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