The Parable of the Grocery Bagger

 This is not my normal post for this blog and it doesn't really fit with the others. A LONG time ago when the curriculum for the Youth at church changed to Come Follow Me, I was really inspired by it and I determined I was going to write a book about each monthly theme. I started with Covenants, just because I did, and I have just now finished the first draft of the first chapter of that book 😁. I may never finish my book(s), but I thought I'd share out the first chapter, just in case it helps anyone out there.

Eli at the beginning of the Covid Pandemic showing that there were so many empty shelves at the grocery store. It doesn't really have anything to do with the story, except that it's a grocery store. It also just felt wrong not to post a cute picture of Eli.

Chapter 1 

The Parable of the Grocery Bagger

What is a covenant? We are used to giving the quick answer “a two-way promise.” What does that really look like in our everyday life. Let me tell you the parable of the grocery bagger.

There once was a man named Fred. Fred was a good man and had heard the value of good work, so he decided one day that he would go down to the local grocery store and begin helping people take their bags to the car. Fred started even earning some money here and there from nice people who would give him a tip. He even started going inside the store and bagging the groceries, so he could carry them out sooner. He became well known at the store and the bakery began saving all of the day-old doughnuts for Fred. Eventually, the store manager took notice and decided he would offer Fred a full time job. He took Fred into his office and told him that he would like to offer him a job with a regular salary. Fred would be given health benefits and the chance to work up the chain and really grow this job into a career. Fred thought this sounded pretty great, but then the manager continued to explain what would be required of him. Fred could no longer come and go and he pleased. Fred would need to agree to be there at the proper scheduled times for work and wear the store uniform. He also needed to agree to follow all of the guidelines for employee conduct. Fred became disgusted at what he felt were outrageous requirements. Why could he not just continue to work as he did now and still receive a salary and benefits? Fred became incensed and stormed out of the store, never to return.

Now you might be saying to yourself, great story, but what does it have to do with covenants? In the Bible Dictionary we learn that a covenant:

Sometimes denotes an agreement between persons or nations; more often between God and man; but in this latter case it is important to notice that the two parties to the agreement do not stand in the relation of independent and equal contractors. God in His good pleasure fixes the terms, which man accepts. The same word is sometimes rendered “testament.”

The gospel is so arranged that principles and ordinances are received by covenant, placing the recipient under strong obligation and responsibility to honor the commitment. (Bible Dictionary, "Covenant")

In the parable, Fred was offered a “covenant” by the store manager. Just as we are free to accept or decline the offered covenants, Fred was at liberty to accept or deny the job. The store manager set the rules and terms, which were non-negotiable. God has laid for his plan for us, which we agreed to before the world began. We literally “shouted for joy” (Job 38:7) when we heard it. This included the covenants we would have to enter into in this life. The terms of which were set by God himself. Just as Fred would have to agree to the store manager’s terms to receive the added blessings of being an actual employee, we must agree to God’s terms if we want to have all of the blessings of eternal life.

One of the first questions I often hear from youth is “but aren’t you still blessed for being a good person?” The easy answer is “yes!” Fred still got blessings for all of his hard work. The truth is that the same way the rewards for simple hard work pale in comparison to the rewards of being a contracted employee, the rewards of being a good person are nothing compared to those of a covenanted saint being a good person. One way in which the story fails is that there are not limited spaces in God’s kingdom. There is room for everyone. God wants to redeem “all mankind, even as many as will.” (Moses 5:9)

The evidence of how important it is for everyone to “sign the contract” or make the covenant is in the scriptures.  Jesus was baptized (2 Nephi 31:5). It was not even enough to be the perfect man without covenants. “And again, it showeth unto the children of men the straitness of the path, and the narrowness of the gate, by which they should enter” (2 Nephi 31:9). There is one pathway back to Heavenly Father and everyone must enter in through that gate.

Covenants must also be administered by those with the correct authority. Could just anyone off the street have offered Fred a job at the store? No. If a random customer walked up to Fred and said “You know Fred, you really should be working here. Guess what, I happen to have this contract with me. It says you can do what you want, but as long as you bring out at least three bags of groceries a week the store will pay you a salary of $1000 a week. What do you say?” Would that contract have any power? Fred could sign the contract, the customer could sign the contract showing they offered it to Fred. The company that owns the store still is never going to pay Fred that salary. When Fred brings that contract to the store manager at the end of the week demanding his salary, the manager, owner, and anyone else who looks at it will simply laugh at him and say that the store never offered that to him. The same is true of our covenants. Someone can claim to offer all of the covenants with God they want. They can call out whatever terms they deem necessary. If that person does not have the Priesthood, the authority to act in “[God’s] name for the salvation of His children” (True to the Faith, "Priesthood"), then their covenants have as much sway with God as the customer’s contract does with the store owner. 

Like most parables, there is still more to see in this story. Imperfect people make covenants and interestingly enough, they are still imperfect after they make the covenant. “[An] element of God’s grace is the opening of the windows of heaven, through which God pours out blessings of power and strength, enabling us to achieve things that otherwise would be far beyond our reach. It is by God’s amazing grace that His children can overcome the undercurrents and quicksands of the deceiver, rise above sin, and ‘be perfect[ed] in Christ.’” (President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "The Gift of Grace." General Conference April 2015) We become perfected through our covenants. Think about the very first time you were made responsible for something. This could be a chore you were expected to do daily, an animal you were to take care of, or even school work you were to accomplish on a regular basis. How did you fair completing that task? If you were like me as a child, you needed a lot of support and often fell short of what was initially asked of you to do. However, I learned a lot from the experience. I love animals. Growing up I was often incharge of taking care of the animals around the house. At first, I was an extremely poor caretaker. I would forget to fill up water bowls on hot days and neglect messy tasks. I was taught by both failures and patient parents to be better. I still spent many nights out in the dark completing tasks I had procrastinated as a youth, but all of the animals always had what they needed to be happy. I learned more from my experiences because I had actually made a covenant and promise to take care of the animals. It wasn’t “here are some animals, it would be great if you helped take care of them sometimes.” I had agreed to be the one incharge of them. The other part was my desire to become better at fulfilling that responsibility and when I was willing to learn how to do better. We are God’s children. He expects us to use our covenants to learn to be better, not as sticks to beat ourselves with for our imperfections. Jesus said very clearly “Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me.” (3 Nephi 9:14). Think of our parable. When accepting a job and signing the contract, everyone knows that mistakes will be made sometimes. You will arrive late to work at least once. In a store, someone is going to drop a jar and break it while stocking shelves. The amazing thing about the Atonement is that all God ever asks is that we are willing to show up at work the next day and try again. Even if we come to work over an hour late, knock over an entire shelf, are mean to customers, and give the wrong change, if we want to get better, He is there for us. “...surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it.” (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "The Laborers in the Vineyard." General Conference April 2012) The restored gospel gives us the opportunity to start our contract with God over every single week. “We need the opportunity to renew our covenants each week as we partake of the sacrament. Latter-day prophets and apostles have taught that when we worthily partake of the sacrament, we can renew not only our baptismal covenant but ‘all covenants entered into with the Lord.’” (Sister Carole M. Stephens, "Do We Know What We Have?" General Conference October 2013). Have you stopped to think about the “renew”? We make our covenants new again. In my career as a high school teacher, every year I sign a new contract with my school. I was not perfect the year before and I will not be perfect the next year, but it was determined that I did well enough to start my job again the next school year. When we take the sacrament, we are saying that we were not perfect when we started this journey, and we are not perfect now, but we would like to keep trying to be as we were always intended to be, like Jesus. We are asking for His help and guidance along that path, because we know we cannot do it alone and we need His enabling power to get there. Sister Cheryl A. Esplin relates the following:

The sacrament provides a time for a truly spiritual experience as we reflect upon the Savior’s redeeming and enabling power through His Atonement. A Young Women leader recently learned about the strength we receive as we strive to thoughtfully partake of the sacrament. Working to complete a requirement in Personal Progress, she set a goal to focus on the words in the sacrament hymns and prayers.

Each week, she conducted a self-evaluation during the sacrament. She recalled mistakes she had made, and she committed to be better the next week. She was grateful to be able to make things right and be made clean. Looking back on the experience, she said, “I was acting on the repentance part of the Atonement.”

One Sunday after her self-evaluation, she began to feel gloomy and pessimistic. She could see that she was making the same errors over and over again, week to week. But then she had a distinct impression that she was neglecting a big part of the Atonement—Christ’s enabling power. She was forgetting all the times the Savior helped her be who she needed to be and serve beyond her own capacity.

With this in mind, she reflected again on the previous week. She said: “A feeling of joy broke through my melancholy as I noted that He had given me many opportunities and abilities. I noted with gratitude the ability I had to recognize my child’s need when it wasn’t obvious. I noted that on a day when I felt I could not pack in one more thing to do, I was able to offer strengthening words to a friend. I had shown patience in a circumstance that usually elicited the opposite from me.”

She concluded: “As I thanked God for the Savior’s enabling power in my life, I felt so much more optimistic toward the repentance process I was working through and I looked to the next week with renewed hope.” (Sister Cheryl A. Esplin, "The Sacrament - a Renewal for the Soul." General Conference, October 2014)

Covenants are here to build and strengthen us along our path back home to our Heavenly Father. They were always intended to make us stronger, no matter where we start along our path towards heaven. 

It is one thing to go around a parking lot helping people with their groceries and it is another thing to commit to working for the store. In much the same way, it is one thing to be a good person and another to make a binding covenant with God to do your best to stay on the pathway towards perfection. The pathway to heaven comes with many promised blessings, including the enabling power of grace that will see you through any barrier along the way home to heaven.