Faith and Flowers

I think in today’s culture; the word Faith has gained a few different meanings. The way I see it, there are two kinds of faith. One of them, we all use every day. it is born by experience; it assures us that a new day will dawn, or that spring will come, or even that there will be a heaven after this life. it is the kind of faith that gives us confidence of that which is scheduled to happen....


The other kind of faith, rarer than the first, is the kind of faith that causes things to happen. it is the kind of faith that moves people, sometimes moves things... it comes by gradual growth. line upon line, here a little and there a little. In fact, watching grass grow might be more exciting than wondering when your faith is going to grow. But guys... I know it in my head and in my heart, that Faith is a real power, a power as real and as invisible as electricity. When directed and channeled, it can have great effect

So... 2 ways we can grow our faith:

1. remove negative weeds
2. cultivate positive flowers

Yes we're using agriculture as a metaphor.. Real men like flowers, right?
In front of my house I have two lavender azaleas, an evergreen shrubbery, and half a flower bed... I say half because I went out to mow the other day, which was long overdue, and the weeds had grown so tall that while listening to my headphones I mowed right over half the flower bed!! I even cut one of the drip irrigation lines which sprayed like a cannon at my roommate’s window at 4 am. Home owning... it’s tough guys :|


so ya, I felt like a genius. The funny thing is, Weeds require zero effort. Meanwhile Fruits, vegetables, and flowers require constant nurturing. You want a garden full of weeds? Do nothing.


You want the flowers, the reward, the greater faith? Don’t just mow the weeds, Yank them out by the roots!! Otherwise they will grow back so fast and twist reality so that you can't even see what you truly want, until you mow right over it! Uprooting the weeds, this is full repentance. Do yourself a 180 and don't look back.


But - it doesn't end there. We are not just paying a debt.
Our purpose is to become someone.


If I spent my whole career just proofreading for mistakes and fixing errors… life would not be so exciting. (sorry teachers who do that all afternoon!)


Instead let's write. Let's create. Continually plant and nourish the seeds of divine qualities.


- Be humble & kind,
- Be meek
- Love unconditionally
- Try not to judge
- Be a friend to the lonely
- Be prayerful
- Have virtue
- Be Patient
- Have Charity
- Be Forgiving
- Be Thankful
- Be etc. etc. etc.


Easier said than done? Maybe. But have you ever tried to be like somebody you admire? Not in like a creepy stalker way.. but when you admire someone, they probably have a few characteristics that attract you to them. The more time you spend with them, the more those attributes will rub off on you.


So... (this may sound cheesy) spend time with Jesus. Get to know Him. Read His books: The old and new testaments, the book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, even the words from living prophets! As you cultivate these Christ-like attributes, you will stretch yourself to become the absolute best version of you, and a little more like Him.

In short, your best chance for being happy is to do the things that happy people do. Live the way happy people live. Walk the path that happy people walk.
If you do, your chance to find joy in unexpected moments, to find peace in unexpected places, to find the help of angels when you didn’t even know they knew you existed, improves exponentially.

- Jeffrey R Holland
Bringin' it back a bit --- when we combine the first kind of faith i mentioned earlier (confidence in that which we cannot see or yet to come), with action that is in absolute conformity to the will of our Heavenly Father, we will have faith to make things happen. To become who we want/need/are meant to become. Without all three - first, absolute confidence; second action; and third, absolute conformity -- without these three, all we have is a counterfeit, a weak and watered down faith.


"27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words."


Plant the seed. Exercise a little bit of faith. Nurture it with the word of God. Huck out the weeds. Emulate Christ. Pretty soon, you'll know it’s true in your head and in your heart. :)