"Garnish"

This morning, my mom and I had a conversation about the phrase "let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly", taken from Doctrine and Covenants 121:45. We particularly focused on the word "garnish". Various dictionaries have multiple definitions of "garnish", most of which don't seem to fit very well.

Naturally, the cooking usage of "garnish" came readily to mind, like to put some decorative herb around the edges of a plate. One can imagine a plate with a delicious steak and mashed potatoes and also a tiny sprig of parsley on the side. Mom said that it seems unlikely that that's what the scripture meant.

While I generally agree with her on that point (I think that virtue is far too important to be a decoration on the side), I also entertained the possibility that the scripture did mean something like that, like "no matter what else you're thinking about (school, work, D&D, etc.), make sure there's virtue in it."

In my opinion, this is good, important, and practical advice. Naturally, we can't think about the gospel literally all the time; life is too busy for that, and we should also set aside some time to unwind. However, while we can't think exclusively about the gospel all the time, we can look for elements of the gospel in everything we do think about. We can see how our work is a form of service. We can see how what we learns in school lines up with (or contrasts against) the truths we learn in the gospel. And we can use stories with fictional characters to provide us with examples of how to develop our personal characters in real life. It's good to find the virtue in everything we do and think about. And if we can't find any sort of virtue in something we spend time on, then maybe it isn't worth our time.

Granted, I found another definition of "garnish" which I think is closer to what the scripture probably meant. According to the Wiktionary, there's another definition of "garnish" that means "to furnish" or "to supply". The Wiktionary admits that this definition is "archaic", or, to be more specific, Biblical, as one of the examples of this form of "garnish" comes from Job 26:13, in which we read "By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens". We may not use "garnish" that way anymore, but God and/or His prophets have used "garnish" that way at least once.

Still, I like my insight as well. We should always look for the good in everything in our lives, and if we can't find it, then we should make some changes. We may not always be able to have all our thoughts supplied by virtue, but we should make sure that all our thoughts supply us with virtue. That may not be what God meant when He said "let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly", but I think it also works.