Pancakes

Yesterday we made pancakes. Pancakes are amazing and beautiful, but there is a certain way that pancakes must be done to reach their full potential. They have to be cooked on fairly high heat with some butter on the grill so they get those nice crisp edges and the slightly mottled texture on the top and bottom. They must also be eaten as soon as they are off the griddle and still warm enough to melt the butter you put on top. This is the pinnacle of breakfast perfection. It also takes a lot of skill and a decent amount of speed on the part of the cook. In this case, that cook turned out to be me. I noticed something a little frustrating as I cooked them though. As soon as I would get one on my plate, with the syrup and such all ready, it would be time to flip the next one and then it would be done, and would go on my companion's plate, and my first one would still be uneaten. On the other hand, my companion ended up with perfect timing, and as soon as he finished one, the next was ready for him. In some way or another, perhaps as a side effect of being a missionary, this got me thinking about the gospel. My thought was this- I couldn't make the pancakes very well for myself, but I could make them pretty good for my companion. Likewise, he could make them for me, no problem. But when either of us tried to do it for our self, it wasn't as good. I think service and the Priesthood work a lot the same way. They have to be selfless, then they work great. When we try to do everything ourselves and shut others out, we miss out. At the same time, when we give of ourselves, we can do for others what they can't do for themselves. With the Priesthood, we can't give ourselves blessings or do ordinances for ourselves, but we can for others. Just like making the pancakes, we serve others and others serve us, then we get the blessings of our service, which are usually just as good as pancakes.