Raspberries and the Scriptures

This past Thursday I was at home in West Valley dog sitting a new puppy my family recently acquired. It's a wonderfully behaved puppy but don't let that fool you, he'll still poop on the floor if you don't keep an eye on him. Anyway, I let the dogs out in the backyard so they could take care of business and get some of their energy out. The weather was gorgeous and I noticed there were plenty of raspberries ready to be picked, so I grabbed a bowl and set to the task of filling it to the brim with raspberries as an excuse to enjoy the nice weather.

While I was picking raspberries I came to two conclusions: First, life would be simply beautiful if it required only gardening and reading books. And second, picking raspberries is a lot like studying the scriptures.

Let me explain the second. My younger brothers had breezed over the raspberry bushes a couple days previous and had obviously gone straight to the prominent and easily accessible raspberries. They filled up a bowl, but left plenty of huge ripe raspberries untouched. While I was picking raspberries I realized that I could stand in one spot for quite some time and pick a lot of raspberries. Then I would move down a couple of feet and pick more. When I looked back at the section of bush I thought I had picked clean, I was surprised to see many ripe raspberries still there. From my previous vantage point I had missed some clusters that had been hidden under leaves. All it took was lifting up a branch or getting a little lower to see if there were more berries before I moved on to the next section.

As we approach the scriptures we can quickly read through them and pick out the obvious insights and teachings. There are beautiful doctrines that are there near the surface so even children can understand them.

We can find even more in each passage of scripture as we spend more time and attention focusing on the passage before moving on. (After all, the goal isn't to race from one end of the raspberry bush to the other, it is to fill your bowl with raspberries) Spend time in the scriptures.

There is always more to find in the scriptures especially as life alters the perspective we approach the scriptures with. New insights come as we look for specific answers to questions as they relate to us in our own unique situation. Also, often as we spend time in the scriptures we just need to dig a little deeper. Lift up a branch, look under some leaves. This may require time to ponder and meditate. In fact, not all the berries are ripe at the same time. Some treasures in the scriptures are found after a lot of time has been spent searching, when we are ripe and ready.

Halfway through my quest to fill my bowl with berries I realized that to really get in there and get some of those raspberries I was going to have to get dirty. By the time I was done my hands were stained red and I had some red spots on my T-shirt. Scripture study becomes the most meaningful when we get out there and apply what we've learned. Don't be afraid to get dirty through work and service.

Keep your hands clean by getting them dirty through service.

Lift Where You Stand

As I’ve gone back to reread some of the conference talks from this past October conference, President Uchtdorf’s talk from the Priesthood session really stood out to me. It was an exceptional talk when I heard it in conference, but it wasn’t my favorite back in October. Since then the topic Lift Where You Stand has become even more meaningful to me, and addresses a couple of themes that I have been thinking about a lot lately.

One of the reasons that I have grown more fond of this talk recently is that it relates directly to my capstone project here at BYU. I’m a film major and this project is actually a short film called Man of the Cloth that I’ve been in the process of writing over the last year. The script is basically done at this point and it will be filmed in May, but in the process of writing many, many drafts I discovered that the theme at the heart of the story was about lifting wherever we are. President Uchtdorf talks about two different kinds of people; those who seek a cave or a crown. My film is about the second kind of person, probably because I am more often the type to seek a crown. In the film the main character wonders, like President Uchtdorf says, “What possible influence can I have [in this remote place]?” He thinks this with the best intentions, but the root of the problem he is falling into is selfishness. Without the right perspective and attitude, opportunities to serve and grow will be missed. It is like the often quoted line from a conference address by J. Reuben Clark in April 1951, “In the service of the Lord, it is not where you serve but how. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one takes the place to which one is duly called, which place one neither seeks nor declines.” 1 We must concern ourselves with the quality of our service, not the visibility of our service.

Another related element of this topic is what Elder Oaks once referred to as “laboring in the remote corners of the Lord’s vineyard.” 2 These corners are perhaps unflattering or dull by the worlds standards but that doesn’t diminish the importance of God’s children who live there. There may not even be a multitude of people to serve in that place, but we know from the scriptures that even if there were only one soul in that corner of the vineyard no price would be too great to save that soul. No service goes to waste, because even if our service was of no use to others, at the very least it would be of benefit to us in bringing us nearer to Christ. I like the verse from the hymn I’ll Go Where You Want Me To Go (Hymn no. 270),

There’s surely somewhere a lowly place

In earth’s harvest fields so wide

Where I may labor through life’s short day

For Jesus, the Crucified.

Whatever service we render, no matter where we are, is really service rendered to our Savior. It is for Him that we should labor.

Some of the most important service that often goes unseen and unrecognized is the service that is render in the home by loving parents. In a fireside given at BYU in 1990 President Hunter said, “Most of us may spend much of our lives giving service in relative obscurity. Consider the profound service a mother or father gives in the quiet anonymity of a worthy Latter-day Saint home.” 3 I think of my parents, the sacrifices they have made, and the profound impact they have had on my life. Where would I be without them? And yet, parenthood did not bring them wealth, fame, or recognition as the world measures it. I am so grateful for the other pursuits they put to the side selflessly in order to have a family. This is especially the case for mothers who may set aside school or a career they were working towards in order to raise children in the home. Remember, “thy Father which seeth in secret... shall reward thee openly.” (Matt. 6:4)

1. J. Reuben Clark, in Conference Report, Apr. 1951, 154.
2. Dallin H. Oaks, “I’ll Go Where You Want Me To Go,” Liahona, Nov 2002, 67–70.
3. Howard W. Hunter, “Out of the Limelight,” New Era, Sep 1991, 4