Pancakes, God, and Our Lives

     As a kid, I lived with my mom. I was the spoiled only child of a single mother which meant lots and lots of time together. We were best friends and one of our favorite things to do was to spend time in the kitchen. Whether that was really what we wanted to do or just that I though that because it was what my Mom had to do to get dinner for her and her little boy, I don't know but what I do know is that because of those precious days in the kitchen, I love to cook! Whatever it may be; chicken alfredo, enchiladas, teriyaki chicken, or...well you name it, I love making it all. One of my favorite things to make is pancakes.
     There are a ton of steps to making pancakes. Even with the simple, add-water-only ones, there is room for error in taking those steps. You could put to little water, you could put to much water. You can have to much mix or not enough. And what about if you don't mix well enough; you end up with super clumpy, nasty ol' pancakes. Then you have to deal with the pan...that can be the worst part. If you have the heat too low you have dry pancakes. If it is to high, you end up with the middles not cooked and the outsides burned to black little crispies.
     But why do we make pancakes? Because we want them! Maybe as a parent, as it was for my mom, she was making them for me, trying her hardest to make sure that I was more than just satisfied but happy. So we take care, following every step carefully and if we did it right...WALLAH! You have golden, delicious pancakes, ready for serving with a little bit of butter and some warm maple syrup.
     Well, life is pretty much the same way. That beautiful and delicious pancake can be our lives, individually and as families, but only if we do it right. We have to take the right steps. Obviously though, life is a bit more complicated than pancakes...We have decisions to make, decisions that determine who we will be here and in the eternities. So in all honesty, we don't want to mess up. The outcome of our lives...well let me just say that I am pretty sure none of us want to have a life like a bunch of burnt-on-the-outside-nasty-and-doughy-on-the-inside pancakes. We want to be those perfect pancakes, the ones that the maker of those pancakes intended for us to be. Well, God is the same way...
     Heavenly Father (or God as most people call Him) is just the same way. He is the Father of our spirits (Romans 8:16; Jeremiah 1:5) and when He created us, when He set off to make His pancakes, He had a purpose for it. The scriptures teach us that His purpose was and is "the immortality and eternal life of man", of us. So He didn't send us here to have us be burnt or dry or otherwise ruined pancakes, we were sent to be made into perfect pancakes. And just like any good cook, He follows specific steps in getting us there.
     Jesus Christ taught us perfectly the steps we are to take in life to create the life that He and our Heavenly Father want us to have. Just like a box or bag of pancake mix has the instructions on the back and that tantalizing picture of perfect pancakes on the front, Christ taught us those perfect steps for us to have a perfect and happy life. He not only taught them in sermon but by the way that He lived, putting for that perfect example and rooting on the whole way, encouragingly shouting "You can do it too!"
     He taught us to have faith in Him, the foundation of our lives. He pleaded with us to repent of our sins and to make promises with our Heavenly Father called covenants, the first one being baptism. We then receive the huge blessings of the Holy Spirit and the promise that if we keep these things up, if we keep having faith and keep repenting or changing for the better spiritually and keep recommitting to those promises that we make with God, that we will be saved and end up with God once more.
     That is a pretty good promise, isn't it? The chance to be with God...I can't think of anything better than...wait...what about our families?! Well that is part of Christ's promise to us, that we can make it with our families too, because lets be honest, who really eats only one pancake at a time? NO! We eat in stacks of three, four, five (and for those big families out there 8,10,15...) and that is the way God wants us, all together.
     And that is the purpose, the reason that we start the journey; so that we reach the end and it is the best ending that we could possibly have. So lets keep on keeping on! We can be those perfect pancakes, we can return to God, but we have to make those steps, in the right order and at the right time. It's all about those steps...