by Shawn Tucker:
Imagine for a moment a medium-sized room. On one of the walls there is an average-sized window. There aren't any other windows in the room, so this window makes up a relatively small part of the total wall surface of the room. Said differently, of all the room's wall space, maybe only 5% to 10% of is occupied by this window. But here's the thing—in the daytime this one window is large enough so that the whole room can be filled with light.
Many things in the gospel seem to me to be just like this one window. If I take a few minutes every day to say my prayers or read my scriptures, those activities only take a few minutes away from the 24 hours per day that I have. But the time I spend doing those activities can fill my whole day with light, peace and joy. This also applies to other gospel principles. If I sacrifice a small percent of the money I make to pay tithing, the Lord promises to bless the rest of my money, my finances and my whole life. If I sacrifice one day out of seven and give it to the Lord, then God promises to pour light, joy, peace and productivity into my entire week.
Windows are excellent symbols of how small sacrifices the Lord asks of us can become a way for Him to pour light and joy into our lives.
Shawn Tucker grew up with amazing parents and five younger, wonderful siblings. He served as a missionary in Chile during the Plebiscite and the first post-dictatorship election. After his mission, he attended BYU, where he married ... you guessed it ... his wife. They both graduated, with Shawn earning a BA in Humanities. Fearing that his BA in Humanities, which is essentially a degree in Jeopardy, would not be sufficient, Shawn completed graduate work in the same ... stuff ... at Florida State University. He currently teaches at Elon University in North Carolina. He and ... you guessed it ... his wife have four great children. Twitter: @MoTabEnquirer. Website: motabenquirer.blogspot.com.
Image credit: fusion-of-horizons (used with permission).
