Quicksand and Bondage in the LDS gospel

How bondage is like quicksand and how to get out

            My calling in the LDS church is a Sunday school teacher. Today’s lesson was “Lesson 19: None Could Deliver Them but the Lord.” The lesson talked about Alma and King Noah. It discussed how Alma was a priest of King Noah and how he was changed by Abinadi’s testimony before the court of Noah. After leaving Noah’s court, Alma converted many people to the church, but he and his people were eventually taken into bondage. Similarly, after King Noah died, his son Limhi took over as king and his people were also taken into bondage.

            Without going through the whole lesson, the main part of the lesson that I focused on was bondage. As part of the discussion of bondage, we talked about quicksand. For those of you who are not an expert on quicksand (which is most people – including me), here is a quick background on quicksand. Quicksand is a non-Newtonian fluid. A non-Newtonian fluid is a substance that changes its viscosity when different types of forces are applied to it. Simply put, when no pressure or a light amount of pressure is applied to quicksand (such as pouring it or stepping in it), the quicksand acts as a fluid. When a high amount of pressure is applied to quicksand (such as punching it or trying to pull yourself out of it), the quicksand acts as a solid.

            After explaining the characteristics of quicksand, we then discussed how bondage is like quicksand. There are a lot of different reasons we are led into bondage, including debt, ignorance, peer-pressure, and addiction. Bondage, like quicksand, is often easy to get into. It can be easy to get into debt when you buy a new car or house and need a loan/mortgage to pay for it or you just "need" to have that new big screen and put it on a credit card. It can be easy to become addicted to cigarettes by smoking one cigarette or become addicted to pornography by looking at one pornographic video/picture. Just as you can easily step into quicksand, you can easily step into quicksand.

            Just like quicksand, getting out of bondage is a lot tougher (here is a great Youtube video of Bear Grylls getting stuck in quicksand and then getting out of it). Just as you must work to get yourself out of quicksand, you must work to get out of bondage. We have to rely on the Savior’s atonement, prayer, repentance, hard work, and time to get ourselves out of bondage. While it is hard to get out of bondage, like quicksand, it is well worth it as we are then able progress and improve.

Object lesson – Making quicksand:

            As part of the lesson, a volunteer in my class helped me make imitation quicksand. Note, in addition to a great object lesson, quicksand is also fun to play with. You can grab some and make it into a ball, but as soon as you stop applying force to it, the ball turns back into fluid (and makes your hands really messy). Have fun with your “quicksand.”

Materials:

• 1 cup of cornstarch
• 3/4 cup water
• food coloring (optional)
• plastic bowl or bin

Instructions

1) Measure 3/4 cup of water in a plastic measuring cup.

2) Add a couple of drops of food coloring to the water (optional).

3) Measure 1 cup of cornstarch.

4) Pour the cornstarch into a plastic bowl.

5) Slowly add the water into the plastic bowl.

6) Mix everything together. It will take about 10 minutes get it mixed together evenly. You may need to add more water and/or cornstarch to get the consistency just right. 

WARNING:

DO NOT POUR QUICKSAND DOWN THE DRAIN. IT MAY SEPARATE AND BECOME A HARD CLUMP OF CORNSTARCH! 

Great YouTube Video:

- If you get really ambitious and make a whole pool of this imitation quicksand, you can try doing this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-wxnID2q4A

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