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?

Like the Potted Plant...

We are all plants. All of us. Doesn't matter what kind of plant you are (ok, it kind of does), but we're all plants. And what is something we all learned in 5th grade science about plants? Plants use photosynthesis to eat. How do plants do this? They need certain things: air, water, light.
If you have a house plant, and you want it to survive, you have to take care of it. You make sure it gets water. There will (almost) always be air around it. It needs sun... you can't provide sun, but you can put it in a place where there is sun. Now, the more sun it gets, the more it'll be able to produce all that stuff that it needs to to feed itself. If we just put it in the windowsill for a few minutes a day, it probably won't do so well. Where as if we put it in the windowsill, and just let it go, it'll do great.
When we quickly read our scriptures, or say a quick, meaningless prayer, or do any of the things we should be doing grudgingly and half-heartedly, we are cutting ourselves off from that sunlight. The more we do things like scripture study, praying, church attendance, and more, the more we expose ourselves to the Spirit. We put ourselves in the windowsill when we follow the commandments of God, no matter how small they are. That Spirit is able to more fully fall upon us, and bless us with even greater blessings. The more we do these things, the more we'll feel the Spirit, and the better off we'll be.