Gremlins and Their Rules!

Look how cute!

Who's seen the movie Gremlins? If not, go see it... like, right now. If you have, how awesome is that movie? Pretty awesome. I love that movie, because it's not only highly entertaining, and filled with neat little creatures (both the Mogwai and the Gremlins), but it also teaches a very valuable lesson. Not just in how to defend yourself from attacking gremlins or responsibility for pets. The Mogwai come with three very specific, very easy directions to follow: Don't feed them after midnight, don't get them wet, avoid bright light. All you have to do is those simple things, and everything is alright. How hard is that? You just play with your little Mogwai, give him a cool name like Gizmo, follow the rules, and you have nothing to worry about. But of course, it being a movie, it would be quite boring if nothing went wrong. The rules are broken, and pandemonium breaks out. The adorable little Mogwai turns into a not-so-adorable Gremlin. Cue zany antics, more mishaps, and lots of entertainment, and you've got yourself a great movie! But how much easier would life have been for Billy had he just followed the rules?

Oh geez!

Billy's story isn't too different from us. There are rules we have to follow all the time: traffic rules, rules in the classroom, rules our parents give us. There are lots of rules out there. But, most are pretty darn simple to follow. We think about the gospel: We're given rules, commandments, to follow. They're not at all difficult. We aren't expected to do anything we can't handle, and are promised great blessings in return. It should be pretty simple to just go through with it. And of course, just like with the Mogwai, there are consequences to not following these simple rules. These repercussions can make things very difficult for us. We don't want to have to deal with negative side effects, and luckily can very easily avoid that, simply by following the commandments. We can keep our Gizmo a cute, furry little Mogwai, and not have to worry about dealing with a scaly, malicious Gremlin. So, are we willing to follow the simple instructions, and avoid having things get out of hand?