I love Armadillos!
Growing up where they didn’t exist, I simply cannot believe this animal is real! Such an odd combo of a potato bug, possum, bat, anteater, and maybe dinosaur? It blows my mind! Did you know they almost always give birth to identical quadruplets? That they can carry (and give humans) leprosy? It’s all absolutely wild.
Now that I am living in the land of many armadillos, whenever a member of our family spots an armadillo, we have a little ditty we like to sing, it goes “dead or aliiiive, armadillos!”
And for the record, we see armadillos a lot and they are *always* dead. This is partly because we are not nocturnal (sad, but true) and partly because armadillos are especially likely to become roadkill. This is because—prepare yourself for another fun fact about armadillos—when an armadillo is scared it JUMPS straight up in the air (up to 4 feet! Those crazy armadillos.). This defense mechanism is meant to help them escape predators, but it hasn’t translated especially well to the modern world, because when an armadillo sees a car coming, it panics and jumps straight up into the grille of the oncoming vehicle. The jumping armadillo is a dead armadillo.
If an armadillo were to stick on the ground as a car passed, their chance of survival would be much higher. But instead, their panic leads to certain death.
When we’re on our spiritual roads in life, we are going to come across information about church history, even true information, that is new, unexpected and sometimes shocking. We will be faced with situations or nuances to the church or gospel that confuse and scare us (at least at first). When this happens, your instincts may tell you to panic and jump away from all the good things you have learned and known now that you know something is different than you once understood.
But, here’s the thing, to panic and jump away from the gospel is a recipe for spiritual loss or death. However, if you will hold steady, stick to the things you’ve tested, tried and know to be good, you may even find that the things you first found challenging and painful, will strengthen and build your beliefs and testimony of Jesus Christ and his restored church.
When jarring information comes, hold steady, let it pass over you, mull it over, pray about it, pray to remember the things you absolutely know to be true, and you will be able to figure out what it means, without losing all you know and have known. As Elder Holland says, “When those moments come and issues surface, the resolution of which is not immediately forthcoming, hold fast to what you already know and stand strong until additional knowledge comes.”
Even Alma, in chapter 40, admits there are spiritual questions he hasn’t yet had answered. However, his testimony of what he does know and has seen and felt overrides those things. Of those unanswered questions, Alma is able to say “it mattereth not; for God knoweth all these things.” But he can do this, because his foundation is strong and steady.
The process to additional knowledge may not be quick, it may not be comfortable or pleasant, but new ways of thinking and understanding can be a blessing and gift to us if we can be patient, acknowledge the things we do know, and prayerfully walk the path with Heavenly Father. Allow Him and allow family and friends you trust to guide you along, while remembering that no matter what you have learned, there are others who have learned that same information and still believe and love the gospel and the Savior. Wherever you are on your journey, that same hope is available to you.
Armadillos are cool (they are so, so cool), but don’t let yourself be one. The shock of headlights will eventually fade and if you stay grounded you will be left to live a better life, with more complete, more fulfilling truth to lead you to the peace and joy you have ahead.
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