A Not-So-Glamorous Missionary Opportunity

Today I bribed The Teenager with pizza in exchange for snowblowing the driveway. (A little bribery can be a good thing sometimes, and everyone's happy in the end.) While he did the honors, I shoveled the sidewalk and the porch. An unfortunate side effect of this was that my nose started to run by the time we went inside. I don't know what it is about being out in the cold that makes my nose drip, or other people's noses drip. I guess it's just one of those things.

Well, The Teenager was a real trooper and cleaned everything right up, including the big mound of snow left by the snowplow at the end of our driveway when it plowed our street. So now it was time for me to pay up.

I hurried off to the pizza place in the shopping center down the street. I didn't have any Kleenexes in the car, but since my nose was just dripping a little and not running like a hose I wasn't worried. I parked the car, went inside, briskly gave my order, and then turned my head downward so my nose wouldn't be too obvious. And, of course, I had to look down to count out my money. So I really did have a good reason not to look at the cashier.

But she noticed my ring. "What does that stand for?" she asked.

Well, I guessed she wasn't asking about my wedding ring, so she must have meant my CTR ring. "Choose the Right," I said brightly.

"Choose the Right," she repeated, with a question in her voice. And suddenly I realized the motto must sound very political to people who aren't familiar with it. (Choose the right? Or choose the left?)

The seminary teacher in me took over. I looked her in the eye--my nose still glistening--gave what I intended to be a wise smile, and said, "Make good choices."

She seemed to think that was OK. At least she didn't respond with, "Ewww, your nose is running." I paid her for the pizza and she said to have a good evening or something.

As I drove home with our car smelling like pepperoni pizza, I thought of the shield shape of the CTR logo and how making right choices really is a shield or protection to us. In seminary we're reading about Captain Moroni and how he prepared his people to defend their land, families, and liberties in part by providing them with breastplates and shields to protect them against the attacks of their enemies. Making right choices based on eternal truths really will hold us steady and keep us strong in so many ways.

So when I got home, I made a couple of right choices. I surrendered the pizza to The Teenager. And then I blew my nose. I feel better now.