on boxes

One time on my mission (don't you love posts that start out like this?) Elder Uceda from the 70 came and spoke to us. He drew boxes on the board and told us to count how many squares we saw.

(How many do YOU see?)

People started shouting out all kinds of things (I kept my mouth shut because I hate being wrong) and Elder Uceda just stood there. The highest guess was 27.

Elder Uceda smiled and said, "Would you like to know the answer?" Yes, please. 

30. 

Good thing I didn't say anything because I definitely didn't see 30.

The point is, there is always more than what we see at first glance. Usually we just skim over things and take them for their face value. Or maybe we go a tiny bit deeper and see a few more boxes than most. But more often than not we limit ourselves. Maybe we stop at 1 or 9 or 14 and write it off as impossible to find anything more. 

Lemme say that again real quick. We. Limit. Ourselves.

He applied to to studying the scriptures. (How many times do we skim over the word "behold" and think nothing of it?) But I think it also applies to pretty much every aspect of our lives. Maybe there's more to someone we know than meets the eye. Maybe a project at work could use a little analyzing. Perhaps our perceptions on politics or education or favorite foods need a fresh view.

Perhaps instead of rushing through everything all the time we should sit down and find a few more boxes.