There is something therapeutic about working in a garden. Whether it is the earthy feel of rich soil against the hands or the promise that planting a seed holds for the future, tending and growing a garden can be a satisfying experience.
Gardens, however, need a lot of work. Constant weeding and watering are required to produce the desired results, and many a gardener has felt frustrated as he or she re-weeds the same spot again and again, year after year. It is also easy to concentrate on a single patch of ground and lose sight of the overall beauty gardens provide to the landscape.
During the Middle Ages, farmers learned that when rotating crops, if they left part of their acreage fallow and worked nutrients back into the ground, the following year the fallow ground would produce a greater yield than planting the same area over and over.
Today, modern fertilizers and compost techniques make that rotation plan passe, but the principle remains — once planted, the soil needs to rest to reclaim its properties so that plants and flowers don't overwhelm it and reduce the yield the following year. Too much planting and replanting depletes the nutrients in the soil and makes for weaker crops and less hardy flowers and plants.
The human spirit also needs nurturing and nutrients. The scriptures are replete with references to harvest and yields, vineyards and work and the nurturing that is required by the laborers.
In the parable of the sower, the Savior noted that unless the seed lands in "good ground" it cannot bring forth fruit. Once it finds good ground, however, the yield from the seed is "an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. . . When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. . . . But he that received the seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty and some thirty." (Matthew 13:8-23.)
Sometimes in our studies of the gospel, we ourselves feel like "the stony places" spoken of by the Savior. Unless we have adequately prepared ourselves — like the gardener and the soil — the principle or gospel topic fails to take root in our hearts. Only when we have adequately prepared ourselves to receive the spiritual seed, do we grow in our understanding and spirituality.
If we remain as the fallow ground, or fail to replenish those spiritual nutrients so necessary for our salvation, we are in danger of losing that which we have. Or, as the Savior said, we leave ourselves open to "the wicked one" who is happy to steal away that which we may hold precious.
No one said learning and tending to the things of the kingdom would be easy. Just as gardening takes time, patience and determined effort for the results to be realized, so is our progression in the gospel equally in need of those characteristics.
Unlike the farmer in the Middle Ages, we cannot allow ourselves to wait a year to see if our spiritual soil will renew itself. Each day, each week, each month, we need to do those things that will allow us to be receptive to the spiritual promptings available to us.
One of our hymns declares:
The Church has need of helping hands,
And hearts that know and feel.
The work to do is here for you;
Put your shoulder to the wheel (Hymn 252).
President Gordon B. Hinckley has declared, "How glorious is the past of this great cause. It is filled with heroism, courage, boldness, and faith. How wondrous is the present as we move forward to bless the lives of people wherever they will hearken to the message of the servants of the Lord. How magnificent will be the future as the Almighty rolls on His glorious work, touching for good all who will accept and live His gospel, and even reaching to the eternal blessing of His sons and daughters of all generations through the selfless work of those whose hearts are filled with love for the Redeemer of the world." (Stand A Little Taller, p. 38.)