2 Nephi 28:19-20

During the morning of Saturday, February 29, 2020 I woke up rather excited about leap year day! But of course, with no plans of how to celebrate this unusual 'holiday', I proceeded the way I typically do on a normal day. After eating a good breakfast and feeding my young one-year-old son Aaron, we read the scriptures as a family, and I began my own personal study of the scriptures. Feeling the need to learn from the second book of Nephi in The Book of Mormon, I opened up to a chapter that I had long loved: chapter 28. As I read, I came upon a pair of verses that caught my attention in a way that had never previously occurred.

"For the kingdom of the devil must shake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains, and they be stirred up to anger, and perish; For behold, at that day shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good."        ~ 2 Nephi 28:19-20

The consistent use of the word 'stir' in these verses naturally uncovered a question: what is the significance of using that word in this prophecy of the last days? A hidden object lesson of this scripture seems to indicate that we all are in an initially neutral state, and that we will be stirred up in either a good way or a bad way. And the way we are stirred up will determine whether or not we are '[grasped] with ... everlasting chains' and angry 'against that which is good'. Convinced that there was an important lesson to be learned in this scriptural object lesson, I figured I needed to try it out in order to gain a deeper understanding. 

So I almost immediately asked my wife Bethany, who is the master chef in our home, if she knew of any kitchen recipes that turn out good or bad depending on how the ingredients are 'stirred up'. She surprised me with an almost immediate answer of muffins! Consequently, we put muffin ingredients on the grocery list and made muffins the very next day with the intent to learn the deeper meanings of 2 Nephi 28. Bethany informed me that the right way of stirring the batter of muffins, analogous to being 'stirred up unto repentance', is to do it carefully and not too long. The wrong way, analogous to being 'stirred up to anger against that which is good', is to mix the batter vigorously and for an extended amount of time.

We proceeded to do an experiment of making two dozen muffins all from the same batter: one dozen stirred properly and the other stirred incorrectly. After baking them all together and letting them cool we could notice some clear differences between them. The outside appearance of the incorrectly stirred dozen had many more cracks and pointed tips when compared to the rounder and smoother tops of the properly stirred dozen. Furthermore, after cutting them open, the incorrectly stirred ones had large air tunnels and only chocolate chips at the bottom, whereas the properly stirred ones had evenly distributed chocolate chips with no obvious airways.

After a successful round of doing this experiment, there were many things I'd gained a deeper understanding and appreciation for. The Lord intends to stir us up to repentance 'line upon line, precept upon precept' (2 Nephi 28:30), carefully with one step at a time. Contrarily, the devil attempts to stir us up vigorously and quickly to anger against truths that are in reality good. And a natural consequence of being stirred up to such an anger is ending up with cracks and air tunnels, representative of a lack of knowledge, understanding, and fullness. All of our chocolate chips of joy and gladness are nowhere near the surface and almost inaccessible.

All of us are mortal muffin mix with so much potential inside of us. But we still must choose how we will be stirred up. When certain truths declared by God enter our ears and ruffle our feathers, it is not a matter of 'if', but instead 'how', we will allow that to stir us up. Will we respond quickly and vigorously with anger and resentment, leading us towards the destination of losing eternally important knowledge? Or will we exercise patience to wait for further answers from God, faith to trust in God's omniscience, and humility to acknowledge our currently incomplete set of knowledge. We all can become beautiful mortal muffins, but the choice is ours of how we will be stirred up.