One Foot In, One Foot Out

Earlier this week as I was driving home from dropping Katelyn off at the high school, a "Dr. Laura Minute" came on to the radio. I usually keep one ear remotely tuned in to these small segments, letting my other ear and mind focus on driving, the laundry list of "to do" items for the day, etc. But this particular day, I listened with both ears because the caller was a LDS female and I'm an LDS female. The caller started off by saying how much she loved her faith, she loved being Mormon, she practiced the Mormon faith faithfully. After all of that, she then said "BUT, I love to drink wine. I love to drink alchol. I really, really want to drink. Do you think, Dr. Laura, that this is OK and that I should drink?" Dr. Laura's first response was that she couldn't tell the caller to disobey a major tenet of her religion and faith. The caller said "You're right. But do you think I could have one foot in, one foot out?" Here is where I really started listening. Because if you have ever listened to Dr. Laura she is pretty black and white. If something is wrong, something is wrong. So you know what she said? She said "Well, I suppose it is better to have one foot in, then no feet in. I would rather you live your faith imperfectly than have no faith at all." Excuse me, Dr. Laura, but what happened to all of your previous advising of learning self-control, self-discipline, and sometimes what we "want" isn't really what we need or should do? I am not a perfect Mormon woman by any means, but I also don't go around looking to blatantly disobey doctrines thinking that somehow they pertain to everyone but me. Anyway, this phone call became a dinner conversation later that night. I asked the kids what they thought--can you have one foot in and one foot out. Katelyn: You definitely have to have both feet in. Carson: Yeah, what Katelyn said. Both feet in. Dave: I think you would get pretty cold standing in an open door.