Rats!

Ratatouille is an awesome Pixar movie, and possibly one of the hardest words in the world to spell.  The movie follows the story of a rat named Remy whose only dream is to become a top notch chef in the restaurant world of Paris.  I don't know about you, but rat and chef just don't go together.  The thing about Remy was that he was actually an excellent cook.  He didn't settle with the slimy, sewer diet that most rats sustain.  He wanted something more.  Something delicious.  Something delectable.  But a rat becoming a chef is a preposterous thought.  Or is it?  All Remy needed was a chance, and when it came, he succeeded and became he had dreamed of.

Sometimes in life, we are Remy.  Other times, we're the ones not giving Remy a chance.  Appearance is the first thing we as humans see.  It's not always easy to look past it, especially when we're looking at a 'rat that wants to be a chef.'  But to truly know someone, we must see as the Lord sees because "the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7).  Our Lord and Savior sees us as we really are.  He sees our heart.  May we strive to be more like Christ by giving others a chance and casting out unrighteous judgments.  It is then that we will be able see the kind of chef that Remy can become.

Clean the Corners

I talked to a former owner of a restaurant the other day, and for some reason we got on the subject of cleaning.  More so relating to cleaning bathrooms, but we won't delve into those details.  Of course she, the restaurant owner, couldn't constantly be at the restaurant to check every little thing, but she had her own ways of finding out what had been done.  One of her tricks was to put a small stack of pennies in corners of certain rooms.  If the employees really cleaned, then they would've discovered the pennies, or at least knocked the stack over.  But if they didn't really clean, then the pennies would be in the exact same place as they were when they were first stacked.  More often than not, the corners were overlooked.

Corners are places that people pay little attention to.  They figure no one will see them.  But corners aren't only in rooms; we have corners in our lives.  At first glance, things could look fine, but in the corners of our lives, we could have a stash of dirt and debris that desperately demands dusting.  The question is, how often do we clean the corners of our lives?  Do we let them collect dirt and dust because we know they're not seen by other people?  Or do we make sure they are just as clean as the rest of the floor?   As much as we try to hide it from others, the Lord sees all.  Alma puts in pretty bluntly by saying, "But behold, ye cannot hide your crimes from God." (Alma 39:8).  May we clean, clear, and cast out our concealed crimes.  When we do, the corners of our lives will no longer haunt us.