Flowers

     Well, I was feeling kind of lazy today, so I started browsing through my old posts, and found this one called Purity, which I have renamed simply, Flowers. This was one of my favorites, so I decided to re-post it in case any of you missed it the first time. Enjoy!


     "As I strive to make these posts more personal, I have found myself looking around, trying to find something that I can post for the next day. It has really been an eye-opener, and I have found many insights that can come as we strive to look for the symbolism that's all around us.
        Yesterday, and I wish I had a picture of this, I saw a group of white flowers. They were beautiful, and one of the purest whites I have ever seen. I must've been looking for something around them, but as I did, I noticed hidden beneath all the white flowers, there was a red one. It wasn't very big, nor was it at all noticeable, until I looked underneath the surface.



         As I have recently found myself doing, I began to look for the symbolism in this red flower amidst all the white flowers, and all at once, it hit me. Sometimes in our lives, we have spots of sin, amidst a white canvas of purity. Often, these red flowers are not noticeable, and are hidden away where no one can see. But, there is one who does see all things. God, the Great Gardner, sees all we do, and knows us far better than we will ever know ourselves.
         When we seek to cover these red flowers, we are relinquishing blessings that we don't have to. This is described by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, in the First Presidency, as "living beneath our privileges" in a recent General Conference talk entitled, "Waiting on the Road to Damascus".
        It doesn't have to be this way, though. There is One who has already shown all of us the way in which we can have these red flowers made white again. I speak of our Savior, who gave this amazing promise, "Come now...saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18).



        It may at first be difficult, but for all that comes as we do, it is truly far better. Alma, described as one of the vilest of sinners, illustrates this while speaking to his son, "Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy" (Alma 36:21).
     I promise that if we will see those red flowers of sin in our lives for what they are, and seek forgiveness through repentance, the Lord will change those red flowers into the purest of white flowers, and we can again receive of the fullness of blessings, including peace and that marvelous joy such as was Alma's."