Cocktails in Heaven

I really like the dentist I work for semi/part/time. I used to assist for him before I went to hygiene school, and if he wasn't retiring and only working 3 days a week and already had hygienists working for him, he always tells me he'd employ me full-time. Thanks for the thought, at least.

Yesterday I was working there, and the assistant that was working with me was telling a patient about a blessing her bishop had given her on Sunday. The assistant has been inactive for a long time and still has a hard time getting to church, and I assumed she must know the patient, or at least that the patient was LDS. I was listening to their conversation when all the sudden the lady said "Well I'm not LDS but I believe their religion! I'd be a Mormon, except I can't live it." The dentist, who was in the operatory by that time asked why, and she said because she liked her weekend cocktails too much. So the Dr., being sneaky, said "Well, I believe that God doesn't mind too much if you drink your cocktails." And that kinda took me by surprise, because I know he's a solid LDS member.

The lady was also surprised and asked him what he meant. He continued to ask her about what she believed in. She said she believed their story, the Book of Mormon, and thought they were really good people. She thought their standards were good, but she just couldn't see what was wrong with a cocktail over the weekend.

The dr. agreed with her, and said that even when Christ was on the earth they drank wine and there was no problem. Again he said that he didn't think God minded that we drank a cocktail here or there, but then he explained to the lady that when Joseph Smith received revelation that we shouldn't drink alcohol, it was because we had to have standards that set us apart from the rest of the world in the latter-days. He said that God foresaw how many tragic things could happen in the world from alcohol and knew it was a good thing for His people to stay away from, and that is why we don't believe in drinking alcohol. But not because it was something terribly bad for a person to do in moderation always and forever. And then he said he thinks she'll be able to drink cocktails in heaven, and when she does, and two Mormon missionaries come up to her in heaven, he hopes she'll listen. And she said she definitely would.

It was an awesome conversation.