I was cooking breakfast for dinner. Waffles, pancakes, eggs, and bacon (apparently I did really good on the bacon, because Brad was like "Oh my gosh that was the absolute best bacon I have ever tasted!", even though he's not usually excited about eating bacon). When I started cooking the bacon, I thought about going downstairs and getting my cooking apron, but decided against it and continued cooking. When it was time to get ready for bed (of course this was long after the food was ready, we ate it, and Brad came home and scarfed it all and raved about my amazing bacon cooking skills), I looked at my shirt and saw several grease stains. I was immediately sorry for not taking the small amount of time it would've taken to run downstairs and get my apron. I knew how much time it would take to treat the stains on my shirt and praying I could get all of them out. One lazy moment turned into more work for me. I finally got the stain remover on my shirt (a couple of weeks later) and the remover has to sit for another week on it.
While you will get "dirty" living in the world (cooking), having that apron on (keeping the commandments, keeping yourself "unspotted from the world") will keep most of it off. If you decide that keeping the commandments isn't that important or that they are constricting and embarrassing, you aren't protecting yourself from the difficult and challenging process of repentance that will surely come as a result. Our Heavenly Father does give us the gift of the Atonement (the "stain remover") and promises that nothing shall be impossible with Him. But He also gives us the gift of commandments to help make the cleanup (repentance) easier as we choose to use it.
~Jessi Hill
