Father, All Things Are Possible Unto Thee;

In Mark 14:36 Jesus says, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt."

How sweet is it to read that even the Perfect Savior LONGED for His Father to take away the challenge that was in front of Him?  As I traverse my life's path, I find myself frequently asking my Father to fix the problems that are clogging up my way.  Usually, I try to add a, "not what I will, but what thou wilt..." to the end of it, but in my heart, I am hoping the problem will just go away.

As I read this verse I read it in two ways:

1.  Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me.
and
2.  Father, all things are possible unto thee; not what I will, but what thou wilt.

Hoping that the Lord will spare us from an especially heinous trial does not make us bad sons and daughters of God.  However, we need to be prepared for an answer that assures us that this trial is NECESSARY for our good and growth, and then we must rely on Him to make it possible for us to bear our cross with grace.

 In January, 1989, Sister Holland gave a speech to the students at Brigham Young University, and as part of that she said;

"I have discovered that the Lord’s “no’s” are merely preludes to an even greater “yes.”"

Very often, as most of us have discovered, the Lord allows us to go through the fiery furnace so that we may have our dross consumed and our gold refined (LDS Hymns #85).  In knowing this, we press forward with faith that He will bring us through, despite the pain of our challenge.

I know that He will.

Growing a Garden, Growing Faith

This post is an assignment for a religion class that I am taking right now from BYUI.  I say that because it's been so long since I've written that some may wonder, "why now?" Well, there you have it.  I must be compelled to write down my thoughts.

The Lord, in his ministry, often spoke in parables.  He did this so that people at different points in their spiritual journeys were able to hear the things that they needed.  In my life this has been a blessing as the principles of the parable have conformed to fit with the experiences and trials I've been contemplating as I have read, and reread them.

This is an interesting time in my life.  My first is preparing to leave the nest.  I have 3 official teenagers and two who are rapidly screaming up on teen-dom.  I am back in college (hence the blog post) and, with all of this, things are not always grand.  Honestly, right now I am struggling.  I'm not going to go into that, except to say this;

In Matthew 13:3-8 the Savior talks about a farmer who goes out to plant seeds.  Some of the seeds are dropped on the side of the road and get eaten by birds.  Others fall where there are a lot of rocks and not a lot of soil and they sprout but as soon as the sun hits them they burn up because they have no refuge for their roots.  Some were surrounded by weeds and, the moment they began to grow, those weeds choked them out.  But others fell into the good soil and grew to give fruit - some gave much, some gave less, but they did bear goodness.

Here's my parable...
There was a girl named Heather who moved into a house with a garden spot.  She loved to garden and each year tried to bring fruit out of the plot of land designated for that purpose.  Year after year, despite any effort to improve the garden spot (fertilizer, weed control, topsoil, mulch...) the garden produced only weeds and frustration.
 

Something MAJOR needed to change.  This rocky, weedy soil could not be changed and so the girl's wonderful husband built her garden boxes which they filled with the finest soil full of rich nutrients and devoid of rock or weed.  She then planted beautiful, healthy starts from a wonderful local nursery and sat back in anticipation for her bounteous garden to grow and deliver.

Not many days after the plants were so lovingly place in their beautiful new home, the wind began to blow at sustained forces of 35 mph.  After a day of this, the girl's poor garden seemed bruised.  But she had hope.  She nurtured the little plants the best she could, and prayed that they would be able to overcome this setback.


However, quite immediately, there came two nights of freezing temperatures.  She was warned!  She went out to her little seedlings, and with the help of her darling husband, the garden was covered to protect and shelter those vulnerable plants from the unkind weather.  Each day, as the plants were uncovered, they showed more signs of trauma until the girl had no option, but to cut off all of the offending parts and see if their roots could overcome the evil that had been done to them above ground.


While the fate of my garden is still unknown, it has taught me a valuable lesson.  When it comes to testimony, more is needed than the finest dirt and the best of locations.  Even with shelter and care our testimonies sometimes become battered.  The wind and frost of the world can reach in and affect even the most solid of faiths.  Because of the time when the Lord designed to send us, we must be CONSTANT in our nurturing and protecting and growing efforts when it comes to our relationship with The Lord.  When we are wounded, we need to turn to Him for healing.  When all hope is lost, He is the hope and the Savior of us all.