The Tank of Lobsters

Have you ever noticed the Lobsters in the grocery store?  They can usually be found (alive) in a tank over by the seafood.  They are all bunched together and seem to be getting along pretty well.  The next time you are in the store, look at the lobster tank.
Notice that it isn't very deep.  And notice how many lobsters are inside.
In the Chinese grocery store in Phoenix, there is not even a lid on the tank.
My girls love to look at the lobsters (actually, they love to look at fish in any store, as long as they are alive!).  You will find the lobsters all grouped together in the same area of the tank.  We were at the store once when one of the store clerks was filling the tank with new lobsters.  The girls hung back.  They were afraid that the lobsters would get out, chase them around the store, and pinch them.  The clerk had them come over and look at the tank.  He told them to notice that it wasn't very deep.  Then he showed them that one lobster was taller than the tank of water that held them all.  He then told them that as long as there are several lobsters in the tank, none of them would ever escape.  He took the time to show my little girls how, when one lobster starts climbing up the tank, the others cluster around and pull him right back into it.  It kind of gives a new meaning to the old phrase, "One for all, and all for one!"  If the tank gets low on the amount of lobsters inside it, than the lobsters might be successful in their escape attempt.  But when there is a group, they don't work together to get out.  Instead, they work together to keep each other in.

I have noticed that people can be a lot like lobsters in the tank.  There are times when, instead of lifting each other up, they are busy pulling each other down.  We can be so concerned with appearances, that we forget to be concerned for each other.  We can be so competitive about the silliest things.   Who has what calling, how many children you have had, or even how many times you went to the temple.  Sometimes it seems like I am judged on what others think is important.  And not so much on what really matters. 
I think the New Testament says it best:

Matthew 22:36-40
"Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 
This is the first and great commandment. 
And the second is like unto it:  Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets".
So, before you say what you think you want to say, or tell someone else what you think you want to tell.  Think about the lobsters in the tank and ask yourself what it is that you really want.  And remember that none of us can see into the heart of another.  We don't know what they are really like.  We don't know if they have truly repented.  We don't know their tears or their heartache, or their trials.  We only know what it is we think we see.     

Ask yourself, are you loving your neighbor as yourself?  Or are you too busy pulling the lobster back into the tank?