Saturday Morning Cartoons

In the CES fireside from Elder Cook yesterday he recounted a story that he had previously told in general conference many years ago.  When his boy Larry was five, Elder Cook asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.  Larry told him he wanted to be a doctor like his Uncle Joe.  Several months later he asked his son again what he wanted to be when he grew up, and this time he answered that he wanted to be an airplane pilot.  When Elder Cook inquired of his son why he no longer wanted to be a doctor, his son responded, “I still like the idea of being a doctor, but I have noticed that Uncle Joe works on Saturday mornings, and I wouldn’t want to miss Saturday Morning Cartoons.”  Elder Cook said, “Since that time our family has labeled a distraction from a worthwhile goal as a Saturday Morning Cartoon.”  I really like this idea—it can be easy for us to let the little unimportant things get in the way of our worthy and most important goals. 

                In the scriptures I think we see examples of “Saturday Morning Cartoons” that took people away from what was most important.  In the book of Haggai we read of those Israelites who did “dwell in [their] ceiled houses” while house of the Lord remained in ruins (Haggai 1:4).  Taking care of their own homes was not wrong in and of itself, but they let it become a distraction to that which was most important and Haggai exhorted them to consider their ways.  Another story in which we see this kind of diversion from the things most important is the parable of D&C 101.  We read of a nobleman who left a choice piece of land to his servants and told them to “set watchmen round about them, and build a tower, that one may overlook the land round about, to be a watchman upon the tower.”  The “began to build a tower” but ultimately decided that no one really needed the tower and “they became very slothful” (D&C 101:45-46, 50).  And of course after that the enemy came in and because they had no watchmen the vineyard was broken down.  These servants let their own laziness get in the way of doing that which was most important—building the tower that their nobleman commanded them to build.  Surely there are many ways in which we likewise “start” to build the tower the Lord commands us to but we get distracted by our Saturday cartoons and never finish the building.   

                Yesterday I wrote about family history work and a need that I have personally to participate in that more consistently.  I think my general attitude has been that I don’t have time to do it and so I don’t get to it very often.  As that was on my mind today I decided to try something new.  I have a habit of spending a few minutes here and there reading the news online—when I have a free minute I find myself by habit now opening the news on some website and reading.  Given that a certain football team lost a certain game this past weekend that I knew was certainly all over the local news, I found it easier to avoid reading the news online.  And so instead I decided that I would use that time, only a few minutes here and there, to browse my family tree on familysearch.org.  I don’t think I spent more than thirty minutes total, but I ended up finding a relative in a census and another source who clearly was not in the tree.  I was able to add the name and now temple work can be done.  That certainly was a more rewarding activity than reading the news and I was grateful that for at least one day I had enough will power to let go of my own Saturday Morning Cartoons to do something actually important.