Alright everyone! Our next talk is "The Parable of the Sower" by Elder Dallin H. Oaks.
Here is the link for the text: The Parable of the Sower
And here is the video:
I always love Elder Oaks' talks because he usually does a simple, straight forward outline - and this talk was no exception! I love that he focused on the ways that we (those who have received the seed of the gospel message) can not have good soil or a fruitful harvest.
When he breaks down the three different examples in the parable, he gives us three ways to exam our life. How is our conversion to the gospel - will we fall away when trials and persecution occur? How is our attitude towards money and the things of this world? (I like that he said the rot of all evil is not money, but the love of money). Are we setting the necessary priorities and doing the things to make our soil good and our harvest plentiful (prayer, scripture study, serving, taking the sacrament to always have the spirit to be with us, etc.)?
I felt that the first question I was doing pretty good at. The second question I felt like I wasn't caring too much about the cares of the world, but I can be good to remember that I can't focus too much on what others have and I lack - especially considering the stage of life we are in.
I really liked the third point. I love that he asked about our priorities. I have really been tying to work on making sure my priorities are well rounded and making the most out of my time. As I have been doing that a lot lately, I not only feel more accomplished at the end of the day, but I also feel closer to my Savior and Heavenly Father. As I make scripture study my first priority when I get free time each day, when I make sure we do FHE (even if t does mean putting a reminder on my phone), when we say our family prayers every day (again, another reminder on the phone), I feel that the Spirit is not only with our family more, it is with me more and in our home more. I am helping our soil become good and our harvest plentiful by taking the small, but important, steps.
Because scripture study, prayer and going to church are always called "the basic primary answers" I think that we forget the importance of these seemingly simple, yet very important things. When the terminology of good soil and plentiful harvest are used in conjunction with the basic primary answers, it really shows the importance of these acts. And, I'm glad I'm not the only one who needs to set a reminder to do these things. :)
I also loved the simple, straight forward way this talk was laid out. The parts that stuck out to me in this talk were when he talked about how we are affected spiritually by the choices we make. Elder Oaks said, "Spiritual food is necessary for spiritual survival, especially in a world that is moving away from belief in God and the absolutes of right and wrong. In an age dominated by the Internet, which magnifies messages that menace faith, we must increase our exposure to spiritual truth in order to strengthen our faith and stay rooted in the gospel." For some reason, the term "spiritual survival" really hit me. Isn't that what we are trying to do, here on earth, survive spiritually? And what way can we help out that spiritual survival? With spiritual food! Just like our bodies would not be able to live long without food, the same goes for our spirit. That spiritual food includes reading our scriptures, saying our prayers and going to church to partake of the sacrament. We need those things for our survival.
Then when Elder Oaks speaks of 'falling among thorns', he says "Whoever has an abundance of material things is in jeopardy of being spiritually "sedated" by riches and other things of the world." I loved the terminology "spiritually sedated". What things are spiritually sedating me, keeping me from reaching my true potential, and keeping my spirit from taking in what it needs to survive? Elder Oaks says, "The Savior's warning against having the cares of the world choke out the word of God in our lives surely challenges us to keep our priorities fixed-our hearts set- on the commandments of God and the leadership of the His Church."
Spiritual survival is going to take a lot of diligence on our parts to make sure that we are nourishing our spirits, as well as making sure we are not becoming spiritually sedated. I think that sometimes it is hard to remember that it is going to take work, and that it isn't going to happen all at once. In Luke 8:15 it says, "the good ground are they , which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience." The part that hit me in the scripture was the "with patience part". Growing a garden to get the fruit takes a lot of time, effort and patience. It isn't going to happen over night. If we don't tend to our spiritual garden, it can become overgrown with weeds. (Even if you are diligent weeds tend to pop up.) It is going to take constant care, watering and weeding to get the "good harvest" that we are capable of."
My thoughts always come across as scattered but here it goes: I like Elder Oaks straight forward examples (do not whisper, play or text during the sacrament). I also like that spiritual food is necessary for spiritual survival. What are we doing to nourish, and even store up, for our spiritual survival? The deceitfulness of riches. Elder Oaks says we are ALL tempted by this. At first I thought, nah, I'm not really tempted by this... but I am. Everytime we talk about moving to a house I start imagining the fun or cool things I want. My quick fix is to always remember that whole families in India (or wherever) live in a one bedroom tin hut. May seem silly but it always makes me grateful for what I have. I like the Catholic leader, Chaput's, comment "I want to stress again the importance of really living what we claim to believe." Again, actions speak louder than most other things. Reflecting on the parable makes me think of dear people and friends that fall in to each category. My heart aches when someone falls away or rebels and I try to make sure I do what I can to not be in that situation. The good thing is there is always hope. Once someone is the seed that was converted to the missionaries or a single doctrine, or the one that falls among thorns, doesn't mean they ALWAYS have to be that seed. People can change and roots can grow. Thank goodness for that and thank goodness God never gives up on us.
I also loved the examples that Elder Oaks gave. I do think that the riches is a hard one, at times. Especially when you are in the stage of life where it feels like you are waiting to "become an adult", (get a home, a car, get student loans paid off, etc.) I think it is hard to remember sometimes how blessed we are, but when you put it into perspective with other countries, you see the bigger picture.I love your last 2 sentences!! I am also glad that God never gives up on us. It can be hard to remember at times.
I liked your commentary on riches. I am blessed and am surrounded by material possessions. I do not believe Elder Oaks had a situation like mine in his head when he said that. However, in my current circumstances I believe my love for money comes in the temptation to work extra hours instead of enjoying time with Sarah or other similar circumstances. That temptation comes from a love for money, which even poor people suffer from.
This was one of those talks that I loved, but had to read through very carefully to try to comprehend fully the depth of Elder Oaks message. Lately, I have found that there is so much to learn from the parables of Christ, and I am excited that an apostle chose to speak on one of them.
Perhaps the first thing that stood out to me was Elder Oak's statement in his first paragraph. He stated that Christ and his prophets do not necessarily teach us how to overcome every problem or challenge of our day, but show us how to "reform our personal lives to prepare us to return to our heavenly home." I know for me, the parable of the sower has given me insight into how to reform and refine my personal life to become more like my Heavenly Father.
I think that the seed that fell among stony ground stood out specifically to me. Once the seed had fallen into it, it seems like the main thing that stopped its progress was that it "had no roots in itself". I feel like the people that represent this seed (which at times includes myself) suffered from what we talked about last week; dancing, but not to the music. When my daily actions in regards to the gospel become a checklist, instead of a means of becoming, I feel like I am inhibiting the growth of my spiritual roots.
Another way we can limit the growth of our roots is by depriving ourselves of "spiritual food", in which Elder Oaks gave an example relating to the sacrament. In an earlier post Joseph talked a little bit about what we learned in stake conference regarding what it means to "profane" something that is holy. I was surprised when Elder McKay ( a visiting seventy) said that anther way to define profane is "to make common." He was referring specifically to the sacrament, but the more Joseph and I talked about it, the more we realized how easy it is to "profane" other gospel principles such as the Sabbath day, prayer, scripture study, or temple attendance, by simply making it a common, go-through-the-motion experience, instead of a holy or sacred one.By consciously making an effort to make each aspect of the gospel holy, I hope my gospel roots can grow strong enough to live a life worthy of returning to my Father in Heaven.
Thanks for sharing what you learned at our stake conference. It sounds like it was a great conference! The other way to define profane has me really thinking now. I wonder what I am taking for granted and not seeing it for as sacred or as holy as it could be.
Sorry for the late post. Hopefully someone still reads it and gets something from it.
Just a quick side note, I was reading Lehi's vision and I was using the footnotes. Each of the people in the vision corresponds to one of the soils in the parable of the sower (it's listed in the footnotes and is kind of neat to go through).
Elder Oaks spoke about when we are not making the sacrament a spiritual experience, we are "severing your spiritual roots and moving yourself toward stony ground." It made me think about just as we can move to bad ground, we can move to good ground. That was encouraging to me because I know I have some parts of all the soils in various parts of my life.
The other thing that seemed important to me is that the seed was the word of God. We can prepare our soil, but we need to be planting the seed as well. We need to be going over the prophets' words and reading scriptures regularly. That is the iron rod. The thing that I have been trying to do better on specifically in regards to the word of God is striving to have the Holy Ghost as a constant companion. I have been trying to pay attention to the things that offend the spirit and the things that invite it into my life.
The last thing I liked was that we can bring ""forth fruit” in various measures." I tried to talk things through with Sarah originally asked how the seed could bring forth varying measures and then Sarah asked what the fruit was and I realized I knew even less.
Is the fruit good works or is it the fruits of the atonement? If it is the atonement, how could they vary? Can it be both?
I am open to any comments. It would appear there is still much for me to learn.
You all have such awesome thoughts and comments. I don't have much to add, but there was one thing that really stood out to me at the beginning that my thoughts kept going back to.
In Mark 4:14 we are told that the Sower soweth the word ...the Sower being Jesus Christ. And what does a sower sow...seeds. The seeds are the word of God. And if that wasn't clear enough, in Luke 8:11 he outright tells us "The seed is the word of God". So, my question is this...How the heck did I miss that all these years? And all the times I've been taught this lesson, how have the teachers missed it. All this time I thought that we were the seeds that the Lord spread throughout the world. And that I was blessed to be placed in fertile ground where I could receive the Gospel. How much more awesome is it to find out that the fertile ground is how we receive the word of God? So I kind of transferred that to "I am the soil".
Gardening in Las Vegas is full of challenges, the least of which is not the soil. But soil can always be amended or fixed so that it becomes good fertile soil. So, an individual who is not receptive to the word of God or any portion of it can change and become receptive. We all can be amended, corrected or whatever you want to call it, to be more receptive.
As far as the question about bringing forth fruit in varying measure. By their fruits ye shall know them. I always thought that meant their actions. You can tell by a person's activity, the things they support etc. how close they try to live to the Lord.
Another good talk on Fruits is "Fruits of the Restored Gospel" by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin in 1991. http://tinyurl.com/puos2c8
I always love Elder Oaks' talks because he usually does a simple, straight forward outline - and this talk was no exception! I love that he focused on the ways that we (those who have received the seed of the gospel message) can not have good soil or a fruitful harvest.
ReplyDeleteWhen he breaks down the three different examples in the parable, he gives us three ways to exam our life. How is our conversion to the gospel - will we fall away when trials and persecution occur? How is our attitude towards money and the things of this world? (I like that he said the rot of all evil is not money, but the love of money). Are we setting the necessary priorities and doing the things to make our soil good and our harvest plentiful (prayer, scripture study, serving, taking the sacrament to always have the spirit to be with us, etc.)?
I felt that the first question I was doing pretty good at. The second question I felt like I wasn't caring too much about the cares of the world, but I can be good to remember that I can't focus too much on what others have and I lack - especially considering the stage of life we are in.
I really liked the third point. I love that he asked about our priorities. I have really been tying to work on making sure my priorities are well rounded and making the most out of my time. As I have been doing that a lot lately, I not only feel more accomplished at the end of the day, but I also feel closer to my Savior and Heavenly Father. As I make scripture study my first priority when I get free time each day, when I make sure we do FHE (even if t does mean putting a reminder on my phone), when we say our family prayers every day (again, another reminder on the phone), I feel that the Spirit is not only with our family more, it is with me more and in our home more. I am helping our soil become good and our harvest plentiful by taking the small, but important, steps.
Because scripture study, prayer and going to church are always called "the basic primary answers" I think that we forget the importance of these seemingly simple, yet very important things. When the terminology of good soil and plentiful harvest are used in conjunction with the basic primary answers, it really shows the importance of these acts. And, I'm glad I'm not the only one who needs to set a reminder to do these things. :)
DeleteI also loved the simple, straight forward way this talk was laid out. The parts that stuck out to me in this talk were when he talked about how we are affected spiritually by the choices we make. Elder Oaks said, "Spiritual food is necessary for spiritual survival, especially in a world that is moving away from belief in God and the absolutes of right and wrong. In an age dominated by the Internet, which magnifies messages that menace faith, we must increase our exposure to spiritual truth in order to strengthen our faith and stay rooted in the gospel." For some reason, the term "spiritual survival" really hit me. Isn't that what we are trying to do, here on earth, survive spiritually? And what way can we help out that spiritual survival? With spiritual food! Just like our bodies would not be able to live long without food, the same goes for our spirit. That spiritual food includes reading our scriptures, saying our prayers and going to church to partake of the sacrament. We need those things for our survival.
ReplyDeleteThen when Elder Oaks speaks of 'falling among thorns', he says "Whoever has an abundance of material things is in jeopardy of being spiritually "sedated" by riches and other things of the world." I loved the terminology "spiritually sedated". What things are spiritually sedating me, keeping me from reaching my true potential, and keeping my spirit from taking in what it needs to survive? Elder Oaks says, "The Savior's warning against having the cares of the world choke out the word of God in our lives surely challenges us to keep our priorities fixed-our hearts set- on the commandments of God and the leadership of the His Church."
Spiritual survival is going to take a lot of diligence on our parts to make sure that we are nourishing our spirits, as well as making sure we are not becoming spiritually sedated. I think that sometimes it is hard to remember that it is going to take work, and that it isn't going to happen all at once. In Luke 8:15 it says, "the good ground are they , which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience." The part that hit me in the scripture was the "with patience part". Growing a garden to get the fruit takes a lot of time, effort and patience. It isn't going to happen over night. If we don't tend to our spiritual garden, it can become overgrown with weeds. (Even if you are diligent weeds tend to pop up.) It is going to take constant care, watering and weeding to get the "good harvest" that we are capable of."
My thoughts always come across as scattered but here it goes:
ReplyDeleteI like Elder Oaks straight forward examples (do not whisper, play or text during the sacrament).
I also like that spiritual food is necessary for spiritual survival. What are we doing to nourish, and even store up, for our spiritual survival?
The deceitfulness of riches. Elder Oaks says we are ALL tempted by this. At first I thought, nah, I'm not really tempted by this... but I am. Everytime we talk about moving to a house I start imagining the fun or cool things I want. My quick fix is to always remember that whole families in India (or wherever) live in a one bedroom tin hut. May seem silly but it always makes me grateful for what I have.
I like the Catholic leader, Chaput's, comment "I want to stress again the importance of really living what we claim to believe." Again, actions speak louder than most other things.
Reflecting on the parable makes me think of dear people and friends that fall in to each category. My heart aches when someone falls away or rebels and I try to make sure I do what I can to not be in that situation. The good thing is there is always hope. Once someone is the seed that was converted to the missionaries or a single doctrine, or the one that falls among thorns, doesn't mean they ALWAYS have to be that seed. People can change and roots can grow. Thank goodness for that and thank goodness God never gives up on us.
I also loved the examples that Elder Oaks gave. I do think that the riches is a hard one, at times. Especially when you are in the stage of life where it feels like you are waiting to "become an adult", (get a home, a car, get student loans paid off, etc.) I think it is hard to remember sometimes how blessed we are, but when you put it into perspective with other countries, you see the bigger picture.I love your last 2 sentences!! I am also glad that God never gives up on us. It can be hard to remember at times.
DeleteI liked your commentary on riches. I am blessed and am surrounded by material possessions. I do not believe Elder Oaks had a situation like mine in his head when he said that. However, in my current circumstances I believe my love for money comes in the temptation to work extra hours instead of enjoying time with Sarah or other similar circumstances. That temptation comes from a love for money, which even poor people suffer from.
DeleteThis was one of those talks that I loved, but had to read through very carefully to try to comprehend fully the depth of Elder Oaks message. Lately, I have found that there is so much to learn from the parables of Christ, and I am excited that an apostle chose to speak on one of them.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the first thing that stood out to me was Elder Oak's statement in his first paragraph. He stated that Christ and his prophets do not necessarily teach us how to overcome every problem or challenge of our day, but show us how to "reform our personal lives to prepare us to return to our heavenly home." I know for me, the parable of the sower has given me insight into how to reform and refine my personal life to become more like my Heavenly Father.
I think that the seed that fell among stony ground stood out specifically to me. Once the seed had fallen into it, it seems like the main thing that stopped its progress was that it "had no roots in itself". I feel like the people that represent this seed (which at times includes myself) suffered from what we talked about last week; dancing, but not to the music. When my daily actions in regards to the gospel become a checklist, instead of a means of becoming, I feel like I am inhibiting the growth of my spiritual roots.
Another way we can limit the growth of our roots is by depriving ourselves of "spiritual food", in which Elder Oaks gave an example relating to the sacrament. In an earlier post Joseph talked a little bit about what we learned in stake conference regarding what it means to "profane" something that is holy. I was surprised when Elder McKay ( a visiting seventy) said that anther way to define profane is "to make common." He was referring specifically to the sacrament, but the more Joseph and I talked about it, the more we realized how easy it is to "profane" other gospel principles such as the Sabbath day, prayer, scripture study, or temple attendance, by simply making it a common, go-through-the-motion experience, instead of a holy or sacred one.By consciously making an effort to make each aspect of the gospel holy, I hope my gospel roots can grow strong enough to live a life worthy of returning to my Father in Heaven.
Thanks for sharing what you learned at our stake conference. It sounds like it was a great conference! The other way to define profane has me really thinking now. I wonder what I am taking for granted and not seeing it for as sacred or as holy as it could be.
DeleteSorry for the late post. Hopefully someone still reads it and gets something from it.
ReplyDeleteJust a quick side note, I was reading Lehi's vision and I was using the footnotes. Each of the people in the vision corresponds to one of the soils in the parable of the sower (it's listed in the footnotes and is kind of neat to go through).
Elder Oaks spoke about when we are not making the sacrament a spiritual experience, we are "severing your spiritual roots and moving yourself toward stony ground." It made me think about just as we can move to bad ground, we can move to good ground. That was encouraging to me because I know I have some parts of all the soils in various parts of my life.
The other thing that seemed important to me is that the seed was the word of God. We can prepare our soil, but we need to be planting the seed as well. We need to be going over the prophets' words and reading scriptures regularly. That is the iron rod. The thing that I have been trying to do better on specifically in regards to the word of God is striving to have the Holy Ghost as a constant companion. I have been trying to pay attention to the things that offend the spirit and the things that invite it into my life.
The last thing I liked was that we can bring ""forth fruit” in various measures." I tried to talk things through with Sarah originally asked how the seed could bring forth varying measures and then Sarah asked what the fruit was and I realized I knew even less.
Is the fruit good works or is it the fruits of the atonement? If it is the atonement, how could they vary? Can it be both?
I am open to any comments. It would appear there is still much for me to learn.
I didn't realize the connection between Lehi's vision, thanks for sharing!
DeleteAlso, I also would love people's thoughts on bringing forth fruit in various measures.
Great question on the bringing forth fruit in various measures. I've been researching/studying it. Still no answers, so I'm going to continue looking.
DeleteYou all have such awesome thoughts and comments. I don't have much to add, but there was one thing that really stood out to me at the beginning that my thoughts kept going back to.
ReplyDeleteIn Mark 4:14 we are told that the Sower soweth the word ...the Sower being Jesus Christ. And what does a sower sow...seeds. The seeds are the word of God. And if that wasn't clear enough, in Luke 8:11 he outright tells us "The seed is the word of God". So, my question is this...How the heck did I miss that all these years? And all the times I've been taught this lesson, how have the teachers missed it. All this time I thought that we were the seeds that the Lord spread throughout the world. And that I was blessed to be placed in fertile ground where I could receive the Gospel. How much more awesome is it to find out that the fertile ground is how we receive the word of God? So I kind of transferred that to "I am the soil".
Gardening in Las Vegas is full of challenges, the least of which is not the soil. But soil can always be amended or fixed so that it becomes good fertile soil. So, an individual who is not receptive to the word of God or any portion of it can change and become receptive. We all can be amended, corrected or whatever you want to call it, to be more receptive.
As far as the question about bringing forth fruit in varying measure. By their fruits ye shall know them. I always thought that meant their actions. You can tell by a person's activity, the things they support etc. how close they try to live to the Lord.
Another good talk on Fruits is "Fruits of the Restored Gospel" by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin in 1991. http://tinyurl.com/puos2c8