This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef

The great Relief Society leaders in our ward started out the year with a really cute idea. Each month for five months, they would have an activity related to the children's rhyme, This Little Piggy. For example, in January, they talked about This Little Piggy Went to Market. They met at a grocery store and had a nutritionist talk about good choices, ways to eat healthy on a budget, etc. In February, for This Little Piggy Stayed Home, they had a professional organizer come in and talk about home organization.

This month we had our R.S. Birthday party dinner. What did we have? Roast Beef, of course! They asked me to give a little talk. I never in a million years thought I'd ever be given a topic called, "This Little Piggy had Roast Beef!" But what fun it turned out to be! Here's my talk. It ends with a video that I've shared here on my blog before, but I thought I'd put it on here again, cause I love it so much.

This little piggy had roast beef.

Did you notice that it wasn’t This little piggy had hot dogs? Or This little piggy had fruit loops?

Why roast beef?

I think this piggy is a go-getter. He didn’t just stay at home like the previous piggy, and he didn’t accept nothing like the piggy that followed him. He wasn’t overly silly like the one that went around yelling wee, wee, wee!

Perhaps he knows what he wants and gets it. Not necessarily in a snobby, prideful way, but rather his self-confidence is secure, he knows who he is, and he takes care of himself. He’s feasting on roast beef and all that’s symbolic of. He doesn’t just go for crumbs.

There once was a woman who had always wanted to go on a cruise. She saved her money for a long time and the day finally came that she was able to buy passage on a her dream cruise. She took a tour of the ship, impressed by all the amenities. When the time came for her dinner reservation, however, she went back to her cabin and ate some cheese and crackers that she had brought with her. She knew that she had spent all of her money just being able to go on the cruise–she didn’t have any left for extravagant feasts. She did this for every meal. As the cruise ended and she was disembarking, the crew was there to say goodbye. She passed one crew member who seemed genuinely confused.

“I am the Food Service Director,” she said, “and I’m so surprised because I never saw you in the dining room. I made an effort to talk to every guest, and yet I’ve never seen you. Did you not eat while you were on board?”

Embarrassed, the woman nodded, and explained, “Well, I spent all I had just to be on the ship, so I knew I couldn’t afford the fancy food you serve. I ate in my cabin at every meal.” At this the Food Service Director looked shocked. “Did you not know?” she asked. “The price of the food was included with your passage. All the meals on the ship were free!”

Can you imagine her dismay when she realized that she could have been feasting on gourmet food, when instead she had been getting by on cheese and crackers?

What about us? Are we feasting on the Spiritual Gifts that Heavenly Father so wants to give to us, or are we settling for cheese and crackers?

As I’ve lived my life, I’ve come to realize that we have a choice. While Heavenly Father soooo desires to lavish us with the spirit, with protection, with Angels watching over us, He will not force it on us. We must ask, and search, and live in such a way as to recognize those blessings when they come.

As an example, I love a scripture, found in D&C 109: 22. This is part of the dedicatory prayer for the Kirtland Temple. It explains what we should expect from our temple service.

"And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them;"

Armed with Power.
Our Father’s name upon us.
Father’s glory round about us.
Angels having charge over us.

Anybody want that?

That, my friends, is the Roast Beef of life. That is the good stuff. Do we ask for and expect that when we go to the Temple? Or are we just quickly trying to make it into the session that starts in two minutes so we don’t have to wait for the next one? Do we spend some time afterwards reflecting, or are we leaving quickly to get down to the cafeteria before it closes? Do we even go enough to experience that?

If we really want to feast on Roast beef and all the accoutrements, instead of just cheese and crackers, we must remember our covenants! They are key to living a Roast Beef life.

There is a protecting power in our covenants. Speaking of those who had made the same covenants we have made, Ammon says in Alma 26:6 &7,

"Yea, they shall not be beaten down by the storm at the last day; yea, neither shall they be harrowed up by the whirlwinds; but when the storm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place, that the storm cannot penetrate to them; yea, neither shall they be driven with fierce winds whithersoever the enemy listeth to carry them.

But behold, they are in the hands of the Lord of the harvest, and they are his; and he will raise them up at the last day."

Now I’m not sure if all this talk about being safe in the storms is literal or figurative, and in light of all the calamities in the world, I sure hope it’s both, but I know that either way that I want this protection. And I KNOW, that this protection is directly correlated to how we keep our covenants.

If we’re living cheese and cracker lives, we’ll get cheese and cracker blessings. If we do our very best and give a Roast Beef effort, He will reciprocate with blessings beyond our imagination.

In closing, I want to share a video that has helped me to think about what constitutes a roast beef effort. It has really helped me as I’ve contemplated what I need to work on to live a better life.



I know that our Savior lives. He wants to bless us with all that He has. He wants us to be a powerful influence for good. As we learn to "live under the complete influence of the Holy Ghost," and strive for the Roast Beef of life, He will not fail us.