Mormonism And The Kicking Of Trees

There's a Wendy's advertisement that's been playing on television lately that shows a group of people out in the woods, kicking trees for no apparent reason. After a moment, one guy suddenly stops and realizes what a stupid thing he's doing and exclaims something like "I deserve a hot and juicy burger!" He then manages to convince those around him to stop kicking trees and join him on his quest for a decent meal.

I was immediately reminded of Mormonism and how being a member of the LDS church was an awful lot like kicking trees.

While an active, believing Mormon, I did a lot of kicking against trees...Home Teaching, paying tithing, attending the 3 hour block of meetings every Sunday, reading scriptures, praying, going to the temple, having Family Home Evenings, etc. At the time, they made sense. Well, at least I had been convinced (or rather, allowed myself to be convinced) that there was some actual purpose for all of this nonsense.

I consider myself one of the rare lucky ones that was able to pause, take inventory of my surrounding and what I was doing and realize how much time (and money!) I was wasting just kicking at a damn tree.

Like the man in the commercial, I stepped away from the tree and shouted "I deserve to be free of this man-made religion and live life to its fullest! No longer will submit myself to all these petty little rules and regulations. I deserve to be happy!"

(And yes, sometimes that happiness can be found in a hot and juicy burger.)