Prospecting for gold

The talks from General Conference are still steeping around in my brain.  And I'm trying to keep that spiritual perspective, but life goes on and all the mundane things still have to get done ... dishes, laundry, work, manuscript, driving here and there ... and, oh yeah, sleeping a few hours every night *yawn* before starting it all again.

As I was vacuuming all the baseboards and corners yesterday morning I remembered a Sunday School lesson I taught a few weeks ago on the importance of following prophetic counsel.  In this particular case the counsel of Paul to the Saints in 2 Corinthians.  We started with the question, "If someone you trusted handed you sand with the promise that it contained gold, what would you do?"

I took this jar with me:

If you shake it enough, you see this:

If you dump it out and really poke around in the sand, you find this:

There's a lot of gold in there if you take the time to look for it.  I have discovered that this metaphor not only applies to the scriptures and conference talks, but to life in general as well.  There may be a lot of sand packed into every day, but hidden inside the most mundane things there are shiny flakes of gold. 

These are the things I can treasure up.  Laughing with my children.  The feeling of sunshine on my face.  A cool fall breeze.  The satisfaction of a  task well done.  Gratitude that my family is safe at home around me. A strong testimony of the gospel.  These are the things that make life good.  This is the gold I seek.

What are you finding in the sand?