Scripture Application

Sam is crazy for toothpaste.  He loves it.  Because of this, I tend to find toothbrushes in strange places around the house and  toothpaste tubes are almost always missing.  Finding toothpaste in the carpet, however, is where I had to draw the line.  We started putting our toothpaste up on shelves far out of Sam's reach. 

A few nights ago Lizzy could not find the toothpaste and started to get upset.  She hollered out to me... "Andrew didn't put the toothpaste where it goes and now I can't find it."  She must have been tired because it seemed to be a pretty big deal and she was convinced of Andrew's guilt.  I came in and searched on the shelf and showed her that it had just fallen behind some other items, but was in fact on the shelf.  Before I said anything else Andrew jumped in and said, "Next time you should ask Lizzy.  Don't you remember what's in the scriptures?"

This caught my interest because I couldn't remember any place in the scriptures where we are taught to "ask first" before getting mad.  But Andrew was right.  He reminded us in the Book of Mormon when the Lamanites attacked the Nephites because they thought that it was them who had stolen their daughters in the night (remember this story?).  After many had already been killed in battle, the Nephite ruler had a chance to ask "why did you attack us?"  Eventually the truth came out that it had in fact been the wicked Priests of King Noah who had stolen the Lamanite daughters. 

So Andrew concluded, "you should find out before you try to start a war next time." 

Wow.  He was listening all along.  Amazing.