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Feeling More Charitable, and I'd Love Your Answers

First of all, I'm calmed down about the plumber.  The bathroom is functional as is, and John has some more ideas on what to do to make it better.  As for the plumber, who knows what his story is?  Perhaps he is under the misguided notion that being a good plumber means making as much money as he can on each call (even if that means the company loses repeat business).  He probably does a fairly good job at that.  Anyway, I'm going to try to just let it go.  Between facebook and this blog, I've gathered several names of recommended plumbers, so if John needs help, we know who to call.

My question for you, my dear readers, came to me when I was writing Sunday's post, found here.  When I was looking up the scriptural background to the ox in the mire post, I was surprised that the Biblical account didn't actually have the word "mire" in it.  I even googled "ox in mire" and the hits that came up were LDS links, or written from an LDS perspective.  So my question for you, especially for you who are not LDS, is this:  Have you ever heard or used the expression "an ox in the mire"?  I'm beginning to think this is a Mormon cultural expression.  Mire and pit mean essentially the same thing, so it has nothing to do with interpretation.  If it is a Mormon colloquialism, do any of you know how it originated?  I imagine it must have been in a general conference talk years ago, similar to Elder Bednar's "tender mercies of the Lord", President McKay's "Every member a missionary" or President Kimball's "Lengthen your stride."  Anyone know?

Thankful thought:  Thanks for everyone who recommended a plumber--it sounds like there are many honest ones around!

Comments

  1. JennaJanuary 24, 2012 at 1:02 PM

    Hm... never knew that the ox in the mire wasn't the way it was said. I learned A LOT when I went snooping around the internet for information though.


    "The Savior knew that the ox gets in the mire on the Sabbath, but he knew also that no ox deliberately goes into the mire every week."
    - Spencer W. Kimball

    Here's an LDS article from 1972: http://lds.org/ensign/1972/06/will-the-real-ox-in-the-mire-please-stand-up?lang=eng&query=mire .

    I couldn't find anything before, but I did not dig too deep into the archives.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KristiJanuary 25, 2012 at 8:09 AM

      Interesting question, isn't it? I found the same article you mentioned. Maybe "ox in the mire" is another Kimballism--and I love his statement you quoted!

      Thanks for chiming in.

      Delete

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