Chewing Gum in the House

As I was exiting the metro station, I paused at the trash can and considered throwing out my gum before proceeding to my car. Then I shook my head and kept going. Why would that make a difference? I've chewed gum in my car before. I'm not sure why I thought it, or had that reaction, but it did remind me of a funny thing when I was at home for Christmas this year. My mother offered me a piece of gum... in our house! You're thinking, so what? Well, in our house when we were kids, we were not allowed to chew gum. I always thought my mother hated and despised it, though I knew it had to do with some accidents. But I thought she loathed it all together. Anyway, it took me by surprise when she offered it to me, especially in the house.

Maybe because I was the only child at home, I was having subliminal feelings that she was doing something special for me, something I couldn't tell the others. So I laughed out loud, and teased her about it. "You're offering me gum? In the house? I'm telling!" She excused herself that that was only a rule for children. I wasn't a child any more, was I? Of course not, and I still took the gum, and even though whichever one of my siblings I told didn't appreciate it as much as I did either, I still thought it was funny.

So anyway, back to today. After I passed the trash can and continued on my way toward my car, I reflected on this story and some broader picture ideas came to my head. Are there commandments that are only for children and some that are only for adults? For more mature spirit children and less mature spirit children? Okay, so that train of thought didn't get too far, because the only connection I could come up with is that scripture that says we get more commandments when we keep the first ones, or something like that. Boy, what a scripture scholar I am! Anyway, so that might kind of imply that I still shouldn't be chewing gum in the house.

But the truth is that as I've matured, I have had more rules about the house--maybe not my parents' house, actually less there. But more about my own--like paying the rent on time, having a job so I can pay the rent, keeping up a bank account so I can pay the rent, having a car--paying car payments, insurance, taxes, etc so I can get to the metro :) so I can get to work, so I can pay the rent--you get the idea. Cleaning up after myself, cleaning up for other people sometimes--well I had to clean as a kid, but not usually the whole shabang. Yea, being an adult has some rules that kids don't.

So maybe it's okay and maybe we do lose some of the commandments or rules as we get older--they're just helping us get there--keeping the gum out of the hair so I can look presentable when I get to work, so I can keep the job and pay the rent and feed the fly that sits on the wart on the frog on the bump on the log in the hole of the bottom of the house that Jack built. I think I can handle chewing gum in the house now.