A Few Extra Syllables

In the final talk of the Sunday Morning Session of last General Conference, President Russell M. Nelson spent about 15 minutes explaining why it's important to use The Correct Name of the Church, namely The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Prior to that, there had been announcements reiterating that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is our church's official name and that the nickname of "Mormons" isn't entirely appropriate, despite having been embraced by church-affiliated organizations, such as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which has since changed its name to the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.
When I first heard those announcements, I balked. I thought that the request was unreasonable and that "Mormon" worked just fine. Besides, "Mormon" is much shorter and easier to say. It's the name by which we are widely known. I thought that swapping "Mormon" out for "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" would be far too much work. "Yes, I'm a Mormon" is only five syllables. "Yes, I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" is seventeen. I was unwilling to add an extra dozen syllables to the already-difficult task of talking to people about the church. Personally, I'm still grateful that we get to call it "the church."
 But when President Nelson spoke about the correction, it finally clicked for me. It's not that I understood why the correction was truly necessary, but I did realize that I had been rather petty and that this wasn't the hill I wanted to die on. The name of the church isn't all that important to me, which is why the nickname "Mormons" never bothered me, but President Nelson made it clear that the name of the church is important to God, so instead of rolling my eyes and saying "'whatever," I should have shrugged my shoulders and said "yeah, sure. Whatever floats your boat."
As I reflected on President Nelson's talk that Sunday, I wrote in my notes that "The Lord asks us to be inconvenienced and do hard things. This is a relatively little request/sacrifice. We can humor Him enough to give Him at least that much." Especially considering all God does for us, saying several extra syllables for His sake doesn't seem like that big of a sacrifice. Considering how much I owe Him, I should be more than willing to say a few extra syllables every so often, if that's what He wants. As far as I'm concerned, it's not that big a deal, even though, apparently, it's kind of a big deal to Him.