Cracked eggs

The other morning I was boiling some eggs for breakfast. The eggs looked perfectly good as I carefully put them in the water  I set the timer for eight minutes. Before I heard the timer go off I heard the water boiling over. Since I only put in an inch of water this signaled that one of the eggs had cracked and was spilling egg white into the boiling water causing the water to overflow.

I thought that this might be a good subject for my blog.

When I was in high school I worked for a creamery. We got eggs from the local farmers and prepared them for sale.  We were hired to candle the eggs. This process was to hold the eggs up to a very bright light. By so doing we could see if there was any blood in the egg. Although this would not cause any problem, the housewife who would use this egg would not find that very appetizing. We would also check to see if there were any embryo chicks in the egg. In some cultures this would be considered a delicacy , but in our culture this is extremely unappetizing.  We also checked for cracks in the shell. A cracked shell could allow pathogenic bacteria to enter the sterile white of the egg and cause disease to the person who consumed the egg in its raw state and make the egg rotten. The  most common bacteria to cause disease from eggs is Salmonella.

We would crack open the eggs with the cracked shells and drop them in a metal container and those eggs would be sold to the local bakery for cakes and other baked goods.

Each of us has a protective shell. Much like the egg, it protects us against the intrusion of the outside world and from it's contaminating influences.  We have to keep our shells intact. We do this by simple procedures.

When I was growing up we raised chickens. We knew that thin shells were easier to crack. In order to get thicker shells on the eggs we would feed oyster shell bits to the chickens. The oyster shells contain Calcium, which is metabolized by the hens and provides material for the production of the shell.

What we feed our spirit will strengthen our protective shell. The formula for this food for our production of protection is really as simple as small bits of oyster shell. I have written about it in previous blogs; daily prayer, daily scripture reading, weekly family home evening and partaking of the sacrament.

If we have small unseen cracks in our spiritual shell, just like the eggs, they will be made apparent by heat. The heat does not come from inside the egg and it does not come from within us. The boiling water manifests the crack in the egg shell. The pressures from peer groups and secular influences in our life will bring out the cracks in our spiritual shells.

There is no spiritual super glue. It is a maxim that prevention is better than treatment after the fact. If you find a crack in your spiritual shell, go back to eating the spiritual oyster shell calcium and this will strengthen the shell and prevent intrusion of unwanted things.

We all need constant protection in our lives.