The North Wind and The Sun

The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak.

They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other.

Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him;

and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak.

And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.

 I have been spending the last few weeks or so pondering this fable, mainly because I believe that it applies to our lives for the last 3 weeks or so.  We have been living in what seems like a constant barrage of wind and hail and little storms.  We have had bugs, I have had 12 x-rays for a variety of reasons, and we have had vomiting.  The laundry has been non stop for 3 weeks: first there was lice…then there was lice again, and then there was vomiting…oh, then more lice and more sickness.  My mother has done countless loads of laundry, and I did 5 loads one day myself in between the cleaning of the vomit and lice.  Somewhere in the middle of that I fell on the stairs and twisted my foot and spent a week on crutches, and I am still on the pain medication. 

It seems as though every day I would get up and there would be something new happen that would make it seem as though the wind was starting to blow in our lives.  The north wind is trying to strip us of our protection, we are going through an ongoing storm and I am sure that Satan is attempting to pick us out of the gospel.  But I am positive that he has not yet considered that we will only wrap the gospel closer and tighter around ourselves as protection from the storm.  Which is exactly what I am doing, and for me it is a knee jerk reaction.  It is what I have always done, wrapped myself tighter in the gospel, put my hood up, and ride out the winds of adversity. 

I can’t say that this is any different than any other previous time in my life where the north wind has started to blow, as a matter of fact this storm is the same as all the others have been.  It always starts small, with different things happening a week or so apart.  Then it seems to come in waves of silly things that get bigger only because there is more and more of them closer and closer together.  One treatment for lice soon turns into 3, with the knowledge that they are coming home from school.  Xrays for a back problem soon turns into xrays for a possible broken foot, leading from Norco to Percocet.  It seemed to culminate in me standing and looking at myself in the mirror because I had just dyed my hair red.  The winds stressed me out and in my state of mind with the pain meds in my system, instead of stripping off my coat of the gospel, I dyed my hair.  I am fairly convinced that every time this happens it just makes Satan all the more persistent the next time.  I am pretty sure he curses me every time my feet hit the floor in the morning, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that he will never give up on trying to strip me of my gospel protection.

When the day ends I take my pills and relax while hanging onto the priesthood sleeping next to me, I go to bed knowing that I will continue the fight the next day no matter what stupid things happen to cause me stress.  What all these winds in my life have done is cause me to appreciate the sunny days all the more, I love the days that the sun comes out and I can take off my protection and bathe in the rays of the sun and the love of God.  Here’s to you North Wind, for without you I would never love the sun so much, I would not know how to wrap the gospel as a coat around me as a protection from you.