Mosiah 4:27 - "And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man (or woman) should run faster than he (or she) has strength..."
PARABLE OF THE TOWELS
When my husband and I are teaching our children to do laundry, we start them out on the towels. Towels are easy to do: they're simple to sort, they don't have to be matched up in pairs, and they have No pockets that might be hiding nasty surprises like
ballpoint pens or brown crayons or lip balm, any of which even a perfectly capable, laundry-seasoned adult can accidentally overlook in a wash cycle.
There is, however, one common mistake that my children (and even their father) tend to make with towels. They figure that as long as they can keep smashing those towels into the washing machine, they can keep adding more and more to the load.
One day I was working in the kitchen when I heard a horrendous noise emanating from the laundry room in the basement. I rushed down to check it out and found the washer groaning and rocking like a crazed cow. Quickly switching it off, I opened the lid and saw a wash of towels, crammed in so tightly I could barely pry them out. Now, I have a large-capacity machine, but it was never meant to hold fourteen, full -size bath towels!
Sure, there were fourteen towels that needed washing that day. But as nice as it would have been to be able to throw then in all at once and get it over with, the washer simply doesn't work that way. All you're doing when you try to stuff that many towels into one load is ruining both the machine and the towels. An overloaded washing machine is thrown out of balance and can't do its job properly.
I understand this principle and have explained it with infinite patience to my husband and to each of my five children in turn. But I still haven't become very adept at applying it in the larger scheme of my life. Believe me---it does apply. I'm always falling prey to notions that I can get one more thing into the load. This is probably because there is always more to accomplish than I have time or energy to do. I am a fourteen-towel woman stuck in a ten-towel-capacity life. And so I tend to operate frequently on overload.
Almost every woman I know is like this. We are really busy! We overload our days with things that truly need to be done and then drop into bed at night wondering why we feel so out of balance. We need to realize that it's better to have ten clean towels in the morning and four set aside for another day than to have fourteen not -so - clean towels and a broken machine. We're in this life for the long haul -- if we don't maintain ourselves properly, we will break down.
-- "Take Two Chocolates and See in the Morning" (Introduction)
Benjamin's Speech was an Early Jewish Festival
The Nephites lived the Law of Moses and the observance of festivals was a part of the law. Scholars believe that the ancient Israelites celebrated a single New Year Festival around the month of September. In later Judaism, they developed this single festival into 3 separate ones.
1. Rosh Hashana (New Year)
2. Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)
3. Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)
The earlier Israelite festival is precisely what we find in the Book of Mormon – not three separate festivals, but one. Benjamin’s Speech weaves together the characteristic strands of these three Jewish festivals.
1. The Jewish New Year – was a day of judgment, of falling down before God, and of remembering and celebrating the kingship of God - all prominent aspects of Benjamin’s Speech.
2. The Day of Atonement – one finds concerns about atonement, particularly for sins of inadvertence and of rebelliousness, and admonitions about confession and giving to the poor – again, distinctive teachings of Benjamin.
3. The Feast of Tabernacles, (As at Benjamin’s) one finds people dwelling in TENTS, each man with his family, to listen to the king deliver the “paragraph of the King” and given an accounting of his stewardship as king – but sill mere-mortal. This was also to be a “Coronation of King Mosiah II”
1. Rosh Hashana (New Year)
2. Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)
3. Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)
The earlier Israelite festival is precisely what we find in the Book of Mormon – not three separate festivals, but one. Benjamin’s Speech weaves together the characteristic strands of these three Jewish festivals.
1. The Jewish New Year – was a day of judgment, of falling down before God, and of remembering and celebrating the kingship of God - all prominent aspects of Benjamin’s Speech.
2. The Day of Atonement – one finds concerns about atonement, particularly for sins of inadvertence and of rebelliousness, and admonitions about confession and giving to the poor – again, distinctive teachings of Benjamin.
3. The Feast of Tabernacles, (As at Benjamin’s) one finds people dwelling in TENTS, each man with his family, to listen to the king deliver the “paragraph of the King” and given an accounting of his stewardship as king – but sill mere-mortal. This was also to be a “Coronation of King Mosiah II”
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