Turtle

The boys found this turtle while they were playing in the woods and brought it home to show us. At first he was shut up tight in his shell and we weren't even sure that he was alive but eventually he got brave enough to stick his head out a little bit. The slightest movement or loud noise would drive him back into his shell where he would wait until he felt safe again. He was very slow; I guess turtles have earned that reputation for a reason. The more I thought about it though, the more it occurred to me that maybe he was not slow as much as he was patient (and cautious). He knew what he needed to do to keep himself safe and he did it. Seeing this turtle and watching his behavior also brought to mind the story of the tortoise and the hare. Recently my sister shared an idea with me relating to being like the tortoise: It is better to be reading our scriptures a little every day rather than in spurts; it is better to pray and serve others as part of our daily lives rather than wearing ourselves out in a furious sprint as we try to make up for lost time and it is better to be making slow progress like the tortoise than sitting back and resting like the hare and making no progress at all. A lot of times we get caught up in always trying to do more and move faster. The society we live in is very fast paced and it seems that the world places value on us according to how much we can jam into our busy schedules rather than the quality of the work we do or the activities we engage in. We need to remember to be more like the turtle. We need to patiently plod along the path to eternal life doing the best we know how to do. We need to guard ourselves and our families from the perils of the world and we need to remember that "slow and steady wins the race."

You can see more of our turtle friend here:

Coming Out of His Shell