Pickled Husbands

I've recently acquired a taste for pickles. Although I don't necessarily choose to eat them plain yet, I do enjoy them on sandwiches, burgers, and hot dogs. That's a big change from my childhood, when I hated even the smallest bits of pickle in my food. Besides eating a delicious Cuban pork and pickle sandwich yesterday,

Courtesy Zupa's deliciousness and Owlet's great taste in restaurants

I was recently reminded of pickles by the scripture I've been pondering this week, D&C 42:22:

Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else.

I've claimed to love my wife with all my heart before, but I realized that's not quite true. I want to love my wife with all my heart. I definitely love her with a lot of my heart. But whenever I let myself be distracted when Owlet's talking to me, or procrastinate homework that would help me eventually support our family, or do anything that doesn't put her first (that is, right after the Savior), I'm not loving her with all my heart.

Luckily, I think I'm still a pretty good husband. And loving Owlet with all my heart is definitely my goal, albeit one that will probably take me a long time to reach. So how do I convert my heart to be Owlet's? This is where the pickles come in. In 2007, Elder Bednar gave an excellent talk titled "Ye Must Be Born Again," wherein he taught us the Parable of the Pickle. His goal was to describe our conversion into followers of Christ, but I think becoming a better husband to my wife is an essential part of that process.

The process of pickling both cucumbers and husbands involves three steps: preparing and cleaning, immersing and saturating, and purifying and sealing. I'm done with the first step—I prepared spiritually and otherwise to marry my wife for all time in the temple, although I certainly need to stay clean and re-clean. As for saturating, Elder Bednar said:

The spiritual rebirth described in this verse typically does not occur quickly or all at once; it is an ongoing process—not a single event. Line upon line and precept upon precept, gradually and almost imperceptibly, our motives, our thoughts, our words, and our deeds become aligned with the will of God [and in harmony with Owlet]. This phase of the transformation process requires time, persistence, and patience.... 

Sporadic and shallow dipping ... cannot produce the spiritual transformation that enables us to walk in a newness of life [or a newness of wife]. Rather, fidelity to covenants, constancy of commitment, and offering our whole soul unto God [and whole heart to Owlet] are required if we are to receive the blessings of eternity.

It's not easy to immerse myself in the service and love of my wife and family so constantly. Actually, it's not easy for me to do anything so constantly. Except maybe eat. But as I try, I'll get better at it, and become more converted to loving my wife. God will purge me of my selfish and weak impurities, purify me, and seal me to live with my wife in our eternal pickle jar forever.

-El-ahrairah