*I found this tree in Virginia, Fall '07I love nature. Who doesn't?
Even though it sometimes tosses my neatly combed hair up into the air and ties it in knots...
Even though it sometimes tosses my neatly combed hair up into the air and ties it in knots...
and sometimes it trips me while I'm hiking and makes me dirty once I'm down...
and sometimes it doesn't allow me to enjoy leaving the nice, temperature controlled indoors...
and sometimes it sends rodents into my apartment where they don't belong...
Aside from all that;
there isn't anything about nature that isn't absolutely beautiful.
When I was at Young Women's camp last summer. {The only 'real' camping I've done in about 5 years} I couldn't help but notice all the beautiful trees around us. As I thought, a theory popped into my mind--that we should be more like trees. I think that trees were commanded to be there. To stand tall. Grow their roots as deep as they can. Reach high into the sky with their long branches. And to do their best to be strong enough to resist the wind and rain storms.
They obey perfectly.
If only I could be like a tree and obey every commandment with perfection.
I came across this quote by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin while preparing a visiting teaching message recently:
This quote totally speaks to me; especially since I'd had this thought too before I read it. We need to dig our roots deep into the gospel and be firm and immovable and simple. Just like a tree.
Now I know I should be like a tree ...no matter how silly it sounds.
And it does sound silly to me.
Either way... trees are amazing. Immovable. Simple. Complicated. Giving. Extending out. Deep-rooted. Always growing. Multiplying. Protecting.
Christ-like, really.
I wouldn't mind being more like Him either.
and sometimes it doesn't allow me to enjoy leaving the nice, temperature controlled indoors...
and sometimes it sends rodents into my apartment where they don't belong...
Aside from all that;
there isn't anything about nature that isn't absolutely beautiful.
When I was at Young Women's camp last summer. {The only 'real' camping I've done in about 5 years} I couldn't help but notice all the beautiful trees around us. As I thought, a theory popped into my mind--that we should be more like trees. I think that trees were commanded to be there. To stand tall. Grow their roots as deep as they can. Reach high into the sky with their long branches. And to do their best to be strong enough to resist the wind and rain storms.
They obey perfectly.
If only I could be like a tree and obey every commandment with perfection.
I came across this quote by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin while preparing a visiting teaching message recently:
This quote totally speaks to me; especially since I'd had this thought too before I read it. We need to dig our roots deep into the gospel and be firm and immovable and simple. Just like a tree.
Now I know I should be like a tree ...no matter how silly it sounds.
And it does sound silly to me.
Either way... trees are amazing. Immovable. Simple. Complicated. Giving. Extending out. Deep-rooted. Always growing. Multiplying. Protecting.
Christ-like, really.
I wouldn't mind being more like Him either.
6 comments:
Thank you for your awesome post! I am an avid nature lover too and Jesse doesn't quite understand... but it was super refreshing to read your post after I just read so many negative ones! You're so amazing and positive! And we miss you. :)
Great analogy! Your tree pictures are beautiful, too!
I totally agree!
Thanks for sharing your beautiful insight! I think there's a similar analogy in D&C about the dust of the Earth and it least is moves hither and thither obeying when we do not.
What a great post. I've always thought the same things about trees. A few years ago when our huge willow tree was uprooted, it made me realize how shallow the roots are (you can see them along the top of the ground). Shallow-rooted trees are weak and grow the fastest. That's why Ty likes to plant oaks and maples - trees that take awhile to grow but you know will be strong and last a long time. We also had a baby Goldenrain tree get toppled over by our fence that fell in the same storm. Amazingly, it sprung right back after pulling the fence off of it. To me it was an analogy of how youth are so resilient and can spring back from even the toughest of circumstances. They are not quite so set in their ways and can be molded and shaped. Kind of goes along with pruning a tree (Ty can tell you all about that). The best time to prune a tree is when they are young - you cut off the branches that will stunt its growth and promote the strong ones to grow in the right directions. There are so many similarities between Christ and trees, especially if you think that he literally hung from a tree. Anyway, thanks for the insightful thoughts. I'm not sure if Ty reads your blog, but maybe you should email him this one entry. He LOVES his trees and might enjoy reading your entry.
I love your thoughts. Reminds me of a poem called Roots and Branches. And Jacob 5.
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