The NON Sticky Notes: A tale about usefulness

There we found ourselves in the middle of the nerd wonderland.  I do not know what it is about office supply stores and all the paper and pens and stickers and gadgets galore that gets me so excited!  I just love wandering around the store and gathering object after object to indulge my need of having pens and paper and everything in between to decorate them in every shade of the rainbow!  In fact these stores along with bookstores had to be labeled by my family as off limits for me when I am alone because I tend to spend my whole paycheck in one glorious adventure through the isles that just adds to the stacks I already have sitting there waiting to be used at home.  But you never know when you are going to need a letter opener with a crown on top, and a flash drive shaped like a turtle, or a massive pad of sticky notes and different colored pens to match my clothes or moods...

See what I mean, just so exciting...

Well in my latest adventure to the store, my missionary companion Sister Honomichl and I found a real treasure in the clearance isle.  I'm telling you how could anyone pass up 600 DIFFERENT COLORED STICKY NOTES IN A SWIRLED SHAPED PAD!  It was so awesome we each had to buy one.  When we got to the register with those and all our other goodies the clerk said "wow I have never actually seen anyone buy one of these before," referring to our sticky note towers.  We were so confused why he had never seen that before.  Don't people understand how amazing it is to get 600 sticky notes for two dollars!!!  And they are 7 different colors!  We decided he was just not very observant, because that would be crazy. 

Well we got home and soon discovered why the clerk thought our purchase was not the best idea.  The notes were not sticky.  It is just a clever looking stack of paper.  I thought "wow, now what am I going to do with 600 little pieces of paper that wont stick to anything.  I was tricked into buying these and they are useless.  The clerk must have meant that by what he said." Oh were we sad.

Do we ever feel that way about ourselves?  Oh I'm not pretty enough, not good enough, not smart enough.  I'm not married or I'm a single parent or just a housewife whose only job is to watch kids.  I'm not in this calling or that calling.  I don't have good job, I don't make a lot of money.  I cant help like my neighbor can, I cant play sports like my friends, I don't know how to cook, my house is never as clean as others.  My past is not spotless and my future is uncertain.  I'm not what normal people should be.  I'm not what I think a perfect member of the church should be.  Or in context of the story, you are not sticky, and why would anyone want notes that do not stick or people like you who apparently just are not good enough for anything?

Well let me tell you why you don't have to be sticky to be useful and important.

After the initial time of moaning and woe over waisted money, we decided to put those non sticky notes to use and discovered something great from that little pad of brightly colored paper.

Those notes became lists and lists covering everything from grocery items, daily occurrences to write in journals, funny things we or others said, and ideas and dreams for all aspects of our futures.  Not to mention decorations for our walls and notebooks.   Everything started to be covered in these little notes.  We found reason after reason to use them and had a lot of fun along the way!

My favorite use for them was an idea Sister Honomichl had.  She wrote funny, inspirational and caring things all over these little notes and left them in random places for me to find.  It always seemed to be at moments I needed a lift or on days when I felt down that I opened or moved something and out would come a bright little piece of paper, with just the right thing to make me smile.  I have found and am still finding these little bright spots in my day and they indeed have become bright spots in every way for me.

I would say that little pad of non-sticky notes was one of the best things I have bought over the past year, because they are something that I have actually used daily and found quite of bit of joy in.  So what that they are not sticky.  Did you know that they are larger than sticky notes so a lot more can be written on them.  You can also use both sides fully.  They are easy to fold into many shapes because they wont stick together and best of all they are a lot less expensive, so I tend to use them a lot more.  They also can go on surfaces and in books where you would not like to have something sticky because it could ruin it or leave behind a residue.  There are so many great things about them we overlooked because they were not the normal thing and someone else told us we were waisting our money.

So what does this have to do with you?  So your not the normal thing YOU decided you should be.  Someone said a careless word making you feel useless.  Or some comment or look or form of guilt makes you think that everyone is looking at you like you dont belong.  Or maybe you are just a little different.  Maybe your life is not what you thought it would be.  You wonder why Heavenly Father didn't make you sticky when everyone else around seems to be. 

Well wouldn't life be boring if we were all sticky notes?

Lets see what Paul has to say about it in 1 Corinthians 12-

14 For the body is not one member, but many.

 15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?

 16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?

 17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?

 18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.

We need every part of our body to function.  All are neccessary.  The foot is no less important than the arm and the eye is no less important than the ear.  Your eye cant hear for you and ear cant see for you just like you cant do the things your neighbir can, but here is the most important part, THEY CANT DO WHAT YOU CAN DO.  If we were all the same and could only do the same things what would happen?

 19 And if they were all one member, where were the body?

 20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.

 21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

Every single person is needed and each person decides if they will contribute or not.  It's your decision to be useful to the body.  But you say, I'm a small and useless part that is weak and does not function properly.  What then?

22 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:

23 And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.

 24 For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked:

 25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.

26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

The more feeble parts are just as important and are bestowed more abundant honor!  God has put you where you are and as you are for a reason.  You are meant to use what you have to offer, not what your friend or neighbor has to offer.  So stop worrying about not being sticky and start seeing what you do have.  For Christ said in 3 Nephi 18, "I know my sheep and they are numbered."  No one is forgotten, no one is useless. 

Stop listening to those around you who are wondering what you are uselful for like that store clerk did and listen to God who knows the answers.   Then be like Sister Honomichl and lift someone else up with what only you have to offer.