Focused on Salt

I have to apologize for missing several days here. I've been involved in some research and when I get in a project that is intriguing me like this one is I focus so intensely that time goes by and I don't even know it. It is a gift, but at the same time it is a weakness.

It is gift when I am studying and able to blank out any distraction and stay focused. It is a weakness when I am so focused that when I leave my desk to go someplace else in public my mind is still intent on the questions I am wrestling with. At those times I often pass by people I know and don't really see them. I don't acknowledge them or say hello and they must think I'm awful. I try so hard to bring myself out of what is a called a "brown study," but often I fail. Mr. J and my children have teased me about it for years. I am working on it!

But what I am studying is SALT. And I am excited about what I am learning. In the Sermon at the Temple Jesus told His followers, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, I give unto you to be the salt of the earth; but if the salt shall lose its savor wherewith shall the earth be salted? The salt shall be thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men" (3 Nephi 12:13).

I'm sure I'll be writing more about this, but to begin . . . in the Savior's day salt was significant--so significant that at times in history it was worth ounce per ounce the same as gold. Why was it so precious? Because it was what they used to preserve their meat and fish, it enhanced the flavor of the many bland foods they ate, it purified things and was therefore used for medicinal purposes, and it was nearly indestructible. It didn't rot or decay or have a "shelf life." Everyone needs salt to stay alive and so most importantly, it sustains life. And the Savior wants us to be salt! Wow! I've been overwhelmed thinking about that.