On this blog, we have learned a lot from many different real, or seemingly random, scenarios that have gospel lessons hidden inside them. Everything can be gospel related, especially here. We have 4 different authors, 4 different unique perspectives on the gospel which turns into 4 different ways in which we see it in our everyday.

The beauty of having 4 diverse voices, and experiences is that it flavors the soup. It isn’t just a one-note kraft mac and cheese dinner, its a gourmet flavorful version with gorgonzola cheese, lightly sprinkled with toasted bread crumbs, bacon, with a side of honey-glazed creole cornbread.

For example…

I learned that Rudolph the red-nosed-reindeer can be a type for Christ,
and spiritual promptings may, in fact, feel similar to taking off your ski boots.

I learned that devouring M&M’s can be compared to the virgins filling their lamps with oil,
and that Adamantium (the metal alloy in Wolverines bones) is like the armor of God.

And thats not all…

I learned that the separation of the wheat from the tares is a lot like walnuts in cookies, that multiple gospel lessons can be learned from Super-heroes,
and that gospel perspective can be seen through 6 foot northeastern snowdrifts.

Not too shabby. All these lessons are examples of how real life always seems to be able to circle around to some gospel principle, IF we look at real life through gospel eyes. God really does speak to us in the language we understand.

So, in keeping with that theme, today I’d like to talk about……donuts.

Not just any donut, but the sweetest donut, the most delicious donut, the donut of all donuts. The best ever made, or imagined. It is the buttermilk donut from Bosa donuts.

Something happens within your body when you consume a donut of this caliber. You become one with it. It becomes one with you, it becomes you, and fills you with a flood of happiness that is unquestioned and unparalleled.

Some scientists may say that it is pancreatic death spasms, compensating for the bazillion grams of pure sugar invading and flooding your bloodstream, but thats debatable, I’m saying its a rush of pure happiness.

This happiness then travels to your brain, heart, and the rest of your body. You are now hooked. It is an experience you will never forget, and the first thing you want to do is share this experience with everyone else. Not with the donuts you just purchased of course, that would be too much to ask, but to suggest that they, also, run to the store to purchase their own and partake in the bliss that is the buttermilk donut.

This happiness is almost the same as Father Lehi felt, when he partook of the fruit of the tree in his dream. It was pure happiness, like the most delicious happiness ever…

And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the fruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted.….And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit¹

Lehi’s “fruit” filled him with joy. The fruit he tasted was the love of God. Which is the single most valuable thing in the world. There isn’t a buttermilk donut on the face of the earth, or any hand-breaded chicken breast in a homemade biscuit smothered with black pepper tabasco gravy that could do that. Although, it is amazingly delicious.

Temporal happiness cannot compare with the eternal happiness, and joy of God’s love. The temporal rush of happiness from a donut inevitably sputters out, gets broken down, and just turns into unflattering adipose deposits we regret later.

So, every time you eat a donut, or fancy steak, or a Costco pumpkin pie, you can think about Lehi’s fruit. Its one little step in changing our perspective to seeing everything in a gospel sense. Putting on our gospel lenses to see what the Lord sees, how He sees it.

In one of our Sunday school lessons at the beginning of this year, we read a line in a talk by Ezra Taft Benson, he said, “Indeed, I have a vision of flooding the earth with the Book of Mormon².” When we had the lesson, I read those words with my eyes, but the phrase that made it to my head was, flooding “my life” with the book of Mormon. So, since then, I have tried to flood my life with it, reading, or listening all through the day. The results? I see lessons, similarities, types, examples, and answers in everything around me. Even in donuts.

When we look at our lives through the lens of the gospel, we can see everything a little more clearly. We also start to see gospel similarities in just about every situation, and that perspective gives us clarity as to why we are really here on the earth, and changes the way we make everyday decisions. And the cumulative effect of all the good decisions we make gives us the happiness that lasts, the happiness that Lehi experienced, and not just the fleeting sugar rush of the best donut on the earth.

1. 1 Nephi 8:11,12

2. Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon