The Atonement

Someone gave a talk in Church last Sunday and did a beautiful job relating the Atonement in our life with ducks coming out of an egg... Always want to remember this analogy.

Duck out of the egg story

I remember as a kid when we bought our first set of duck eggs. Mom bought an incubator and my siblings and I anxiously awaited the day when we would be able to see our new ducklings hatch. When the day finally came, it took much longer than I anticipated for them to be able to break out of their shells. Ducks have a small protrusion on their beaks. They push this against the shell over and over again and eventually are able to break out. This process can take more than a day.

I noticed that a couple of the ducks were taking longer than the rest. One in particular had made very little progress over 2 days. I told my mother we could break it out and rescue the duck. She told me that that simply would not work, that the duck needed to get out on its own.

Feeling that I knew better, I broke the egg while she was gone and rescued my duck. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t stand up. It didn’t have the strength. You see, the hours and hours the ducklings spend pushing against that egg, while very difficult, builds their muscles and gives them the strength to stand when they finally get out. If they are do not break out on their own because someone does it for them, they will not be strong enough to get to food and water and will slowly starve or die of thirst. Despite my efforts to feed my duck, it would not eat and did in deed pass away.

All of us in our lives are like those little ducklings… the Lord has so much in store for us. He wants us to be happy and to be successful. And He wants us to be strong enough to return to him with our families forever. Because of that, we will have trials that are difficult to bear. We will all have our own shells to break. Just look at the very first verse of the book of Mormon: “having seen many afflictions in the course of my days.” This also means that BECAUSE He loves us he will not take away our trials. He will give us trials to help us strengthen our spiritual muscles so that we too may someday walk on our own.

Look at the rest of the duck story:

You see I had only thought we weren’t helping the duck. There is no way that an egg could control all of those factors for it to hatch. The part for which it is responsible, is only a small part, but it is essential that it go through that trial so that it can grow strong and succeed in life. In this same way, the Lord is frequently helping us in ways that we do not see. We must have faith and trust in him.

This is beautiful.. and a great way to teach the atonement to kids too.  So grateful for the knowledge of the atonement in my life.  and so grateful for the inspired individual at church that taught me this last week!! I LOVE IT!!