Grease is Cheap

My mom loves Dove chocolates.  When I was younger, I always liked to read the little sayings on the inside of the wrappers.  As I grew older, I realized that most of them were just cheesy lines to entertain you.  Once  we had read them we'd just throw them away, but there was one in particular that my mom has kept throughout the years.  It reads, "There is greatness in smallness."  This spoke to her when she read it, and looking back, it's rather profound.

I was once told a story about a father and son who just bought a new machine to help them work.  The machine cost them a fortune and needed to be kept in good condition for it to work properly.  Most importantly, a few parts had to be greased up at the start of each day or else the whole machine would have to be replaced.  Every morning, the father would remind the son to get some grease and lather up the parts of the machine that needed it.  He would always say, "Grease is cheap."

The lesson in these two examples go hand in hand.  We can see how something as cheap and simple as grease can maintain a well oiled machine.  We are the well oiled machine that needs the small amount of grease everyday for us to work up to our full potential.  If we don't have our daily dose of prayer and scripture study then we will deteriorate as people and won't work as well as we could.  Alma, a Book of Mormon Prophet, explains it well while giving advice to his son Helaman, "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass..." (Alma 37:6).  A few minutes each day is all that the Lord asks us to give, and the blessings are infinite from it.  May we always remember that "grease is cheap" and that "there is greatness in smallness." 

Pringles and Cookies

One year when I attended EFY, an awesome object lesson was given to us.  It involved Pringles and Chips Ahoy cookies, which just so happen to be two of my favorite snacks.  He began by talking about people that influence our lives.  We came up with a list somewhat similar to this: family, friends, teachers, church leaders, etc.  During our teenage years, friends seem to have the biggest impact on us.  It seemed like we didn't want to hear what our parents would say, and we already knew what was being taught by teachers for both school and church.

Contrary to our belief at that age, the people that we wouldn't listen to were the ones that could build us up the most.  Although friends can be a great strength in our lives, they can also be a great weakness if we choose them unwisely.  Picture yourself as a Pringle.  If you surround yourself with other Pringles, you can build each other up.  Through that you can withstand temptations better.  Let's talk about what happens when a lonely Pringle tries to build up a Chips Ahoy.  The Pringle will be crushed under the weight of the Chips Ahoy cookie, and both will end up at rock bottom. 

Even if we have multiple Pringles underneath the Chips Ahoy, our progression will be halted.  We can't stack any more Pringles on top of the cookie.  The only way to continue to be built up is if we surround ourselves with Pringles in our lives.  It can be hard at times and we may even be ridiculed for it, but if we continue doing what we know is right, we'll be built up until we reach the heavens.