The Wild Chicken Eggs Incident (circa 1953)

We only lived in LaVerkin, Utah for about 2 years, but I thought that it was a wonderful place to live, with considerable forgiveness for boyish mischief and stupidities, and all the freedom I wanted of the town and the hills.

I quickly made friends with Leon Duncan, who lived next door to me. We did everything together. We roamed the hills and fields around LaVerkin all summer, went to Church together, worked on our Trekker bandaloes together (an LDS Primary thing), and cooked and ate some rotten eggs together, among other equally dumb things.

The way it happened was this: We found a wild chicken’s nest in a tree in the pasture behind Leon’s house, and the chicken was nowhere to be seen. There were more than a dozen eggs in the nest, so we decided to swipe his mother’s frying pan while she was at work, build a fire next to the tree, cook the eggs, and eat them. We didn’t know the eggs were rotten – we had never paid much attention when our mothers cooked them for us. We thought the weird smell was probably because they were wild chicken eggs. So we ate them – they tasted kinda funny, but again, we thought it was because they were wild eggs.

We suffered no ill effects from the eggs. I guess the Lord watches out for young boys who do stupid things, at least sometimes.

There are other, more subtle kinds of rotten eggs. Jill C. Major, Lauren C. Leifson, and Hollie C. Bevan co-authored a book called Encircled by Love. On page 88, they said this:

The Mormon people have often been targeted by criminals as easy marks. Because we are taught to be honest and trustworthy, we often assume—sometimes too readily—that everyone else has accepted the same teachings. It is always an unhappy surprise when one of our own brothers or sisters in the Church is accused or convicted of a crime. We learn over and over again that out of the best nesting grounds hatch some very bad eggs. We also learn that Satan is happy to incubate and import as many rotten eggs as he can find. We must love even these, yet we need to stay far way from their schemes.

All of us, at one time or another, have had the opportunity to stray from the gospel. We can find ourselves caught up in circumstances we cannot fully control. We can become “rotten eggs” so far as the gospel is concerned. It’s easy. Just as the eggs in the tree became rotten by doing nothing but sit in the nest, so can we fade away from the gospel through our own inaction.

We can even think we are doing the right thing. Think of how the Savior referred to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:27-28:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

The Scribes (record keepers and historians), the Pharisees (the interpreters of the law), and the Sadducees (temple officiators) comprised only about 5 to 10 percent of the total Jewish population of Israel. Most Jews were unaffiliated with any of the ruling sects of the time. They were just ordinary folks who tried as best they could to live the Law of Moses (or not). Often they did not even attend the synagogue. Kent P. Jackson and Robert L. Millet, eds., Studies in Scripture, Vol. 5: The Gospels, tell us that they were called the 'am ha-'aretz:

The vast majority of the population in Jewish Palestine did not go to church, that is, they did not have an active affiliation with any of the Jewish sects. Most people accepted the views of the Pharisees on the interpretation of the law, but few actually became Pharisees. These nonaffiliated Jews were called the “am ha-aretz,” the "people of the land," and they made up probably 90 percent of the crowds and multitudes to which John the Baptist and Jesus preached.

Pharisees considered the 'am ha-'aretz unclean “rotten eggs” but the Pharisees were the real “rotten eggs.” It is often the case that simple, humble people are regarded lightly by the rich, haughty, and proud.

The Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes were not universally evil. There were certainly those among them that did their best to live the law as they saw it, but the adversary had infiltrated their ranks to a great extent and created many rotten eggs. Satan used the same tactics with people in the Book of Mormon. He created rotten eggs whenever he could. In Alma 32:2-5, we can read about a similar case of Satan’s sophistry:

2 And it came to pass that after much labor among them, they began to have success among the poor class of people; for behold, they were cast out of the synagogues because of the coarseness of their apparel—

3 Therefore they were not permitted to enter into their synagogues to worship God, being esteemed as filthiness; therefore they were poor; yea, they were esteemed by their brethren as dross; therefore they were poor as to things of the world; and also they were poor in heart.

4 Now, as Alma was teaching and speaking unto the people upon the hill Onidah, there came a great multitude unto him, who were those of whom we have been speaking, of whom were poor in heart, because of their poverty as to the things of the world.

5 And they came unto Alma; and the one who was the foremost among them said unto him: Behold, what shall these my brethren do, for they are despised of all men because of their poverty, yea, and more especially by our priests; for they have cast us out of our synagogues which we have labored abundantly to build with our own hands; and they have cast us out because of our exceeding poverty; and we have no place to worship our God; and behold, what shall we do?

Sometimes, it is difficult to choose the path we take as we try to live the gospel. Some eggs are less rotten than others. Some are like quail eggs: small but tasty. Some are like Faberge eggs, incredibly beautiful on the outside, but empty within, offering no progress to salvation. Some are like chicken eggs, fragile and easily broken, but containing needed nutrition. How do we choose those “eggs” which can be most beneficial to us in our quest for eternal life and exaltation?

Like Satan, the Lord also offers “eggs” of wisdom and gospel truth to us in the form of scripture and the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Learning to recognize the difference between Satan’s rotten eggs and the Lord’s sublime offerings is our greatest challenge in mortality. Elder Dallin H. Oaks, in the October 2007 Ensign In his article, Good, Better, Best, said this:

We should begin by recognizing the reality that just because something is good is not a sufficient reason for doing it. The number of good things we can do far exceeds the time available to accomplish them. Some things are better than good, and these are the things that should command priority attention in our lives.

The best “eggs” can be sweet and beautiful. They can help propel us on the long (but straight and narrow) path. Again quoting Elder Oaks:

As we consider various choices, we should remember that it is not enough that something is good. Other choices are better, and still others are best. Even though a particular choice is more costly, its far greater value may make it the best choice of all.

Consider how we use our time in the choices we make in viewing television, playing video games, surfing the Internet, or reading books or magazines. Of course it is good to view wholesome entertainment or to obtain interesting information. But not everything of that sort is worth the portion of our life we give to obtain it. Some things are better, and others are best. When the Lord told us to seek learning, He said, “Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom” (D&C 88:118; emphasis added).

Life’s “eggs” can be flashy and empty, like the Faberge Eggs, or fresh, sweet, and challenging (like the Lord’s eggs) to our spiritual taste buds. May we learn to know the difference, choose wisely and nourish our souls with the wisdom and beauty of the Gospel.