Vanilla

I went to a big holiday party last night with Tim and on the way home I said something like, "Man, we are pretty vanilla aren't we?" While we've both done cool things in our lives, we don't really have too many skeletons in the closet so to speak and our lives now and the activities we participate in (or don't) are pretty mild. While I believe that's a good thing, last night I felt a little boring (okay, really boring). Then, today, I was reading a talk given by Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (Jan 2011 New Era) and this part really struck me:

A derogatory comment occasionally made about members of the Church is: 'They are like sheep waiting to be told what to do by their leaders. Why can't they think for themselves?' While this comment may sound plausible on its face, the truth is that faithful Latter-day Saints, in a thoughtful and prayerful manner, study the doctrines and principles in the scriptures and in the counsel from living prophets and then seek to receive a confirming witness from the Holy Ghost. They don't have to make every heartbreaking mistake in life. They know what is right and what is wrong. They don't have to decide over and over again how they will live. They can benefit from the life experiences of all those generations that have preceded them and from instructions from our Father in Heaven and His anointed servants.

I think the world tries to make me feel like vanilla is bad, naive, uninformed, inexperienced, dumb, childish, old-fashioned, prudish, uninteresting, nerdy, and boring.

Whatever World! Here's my new (and improved!) definition of vanilla: faithful, wise, obedient, thoughtful, prayerful, consistent, trustworthy and pure.