Sabbath Devotional :: Planting Seeds

planting seeds - Mormon Women for Ethical Government

A couple of years ago I attended a Relief Society lesson with a relative while I was visiting from out of state. I can’t remember for sure, but I think the lesson was on the talk A Plea to My Sisters by President Nelson. What I do distinctly remember is the electric feeling in the room as all of us, including me, a stranger, got excited about the possibility of the Lord needing us — his sisters — to do his work. I also remember thinking: But what exactly should I do?

The good news is that having that feeling — of wanting to help God with his work and his glory — definitely means we are on the right path. I like to think it means the soil of our hearts is soft, fertile, and ready for planting — that we’ve let a righteous desire work in us and have made room for further instruction (see Alma 32:27).

But often the Lord wants us to take the next steps ourselves — steps such as researching and picking which seed we want to plant and learning how to plant it. Sometimes we select too many seeds, sometimes we select a wrong seed, and sometimes we can’t figure out how to plant just one little seed correctly. All of these actions can lead us to feeling tired and burned out, but we can choose to ignore Satan’s temptation to feel like a failure. We can accept that the process of picking and planting seeds is why we are here, and we can get really good at learning how to do a little better every time.

I’d like to share a couple of things I’ve learned in the process.

First, we have a better chance of picking the right seeds if we partner with God in picking them. In 2 Nephi 3:8 we read, “[a]nd I will give unto him [Joseph Smith] a commandment that he shall do none other work, save the work which I shall command him.” What we do matters to God. He has things he likes us to do and things he doesn’t like us to do. Sometimes these categories are broad, and sometimes they are narrow; but what is most important is cultivating a relationship with God so that he can help us figure it out. As our relationship with him improves, our love for him will deepen and our desire to help do his work will grow. We can’t pick a “wrong” seed when we are working hand in hand with him and picking our seeds for the right reasons.

Second, it’s OK to take time to learn how to plant your seed. Joseph Smith struggled to prepare himself for years in order to finally get possession of the plates and interpreters. But I was thrilled to learn in Saints, Volume 1, that once he got them, he didn’t know how to use them. “He knew the interpreters were supposed to help him translate the plates, but he had never used seer stones to read an ancient language. He was anxious to begin the work, but it was not obvious to him how to do it” (pgs. 43-44). It turns out he was just like us, trying to figure things out day to day. So maybe we can stop feeling so much pressure to be perfect every moment of every day. In fact, I think we can count on the fact that if we become perfect at something, God will be sure to throw something else in our path to work on. I personally like the idea of learning how to enjoy the process of getting better at something instead of waiting to enjoy life until it’s perfect.

Third, don’t waste your time looking longingly at the seeds someone else is planting. My husband and I struggled through infertility with all of our children, but trying to get our third was the absolute worst. At one point I thought I was handling it pretty well, even with news of four or five sisters and sisters-in-law all announcing pregnancies with due dates just weeks apart. Then one night I was on the computer, and a message popped up: Surprise! Another pregnancy that wasn’t mine. And suddenly the sadness was just too much. I remember sitting on the stairs, crying my eyes out.

Eventually, I picked up my scriptures and began reading in Alma 29, where Alma has a desire to go out and preach the gospel with the voice of an angel. I’d never personally identified with this chapter before. But suddenly, I understood it in context. The chapters just before are all about the sons of Mosiah and all of their thousands of Lamanite converts — Alma was JEALOUS! He wished he was out there in the land of Nephi proselyting, but instead he was stuck at home, running the church, hoping to find a few missionary moments here and there. I felt better. I was able to start accepting that righteous desires can and do go unfulfilled, even for prophets of the Lord, and trusting that there is a reason why the Lord won’t let us plant some seeds at certain times.

Finally, I know that even as we get better at selecting and planting seeds, we will continue to do it for our whole time on Earth, and for me that means every day is a bit (or a lot) of a struggle. I’ve felt so beaten down these last few months as I’ve tried to learn how to plant a few particular seeds, that I have often wanted to give up and find some new seeds. I can’t do that, because I did partner with God in selecting them, and I know he wants me to figure out how to plant them. Instead, I keep trying to choose faith over fear in each moment. I remember that I am only a visitor on this Earth and that my goal, both now and before this life, has always been to return back to my heavenly homeland (see Hebrews 11:13-16, Wayment translation).

I like to visualize that when I walk back into the presence of my Heavenly Parents and my brother Jesus Christ, I’ll be able to look into their eyes with confidence and joy as they welcome a beloved daughter back home. It gives me the energy to keep planting.