God Is The Gardner

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"I am the Gardner here. I know what I want you to be. If I let you go the way you want to go, you will never amount to anything. And someday, when you are ripened in life, you are going to shout back across the time and say, thank you Mr. Gardner for cutting me down. For loving me enough to hurt me."

Let the Gardner take control. 

I was talking to a good friend Saturday afternoon about my future. I told him that I was unsure of what to do next in my life, and that I was scared of what the future may bring. I told him what I wanted to happen, and he laughed at me. My friend told me to listen to the talk, 'God is the Gardner' by Hugh B Brown. Listen Here. I guess if God lets me go the way I want to go I will never amount to anything. I obviously need to have more faith, which is another thing that my friend told me. There is a passage in Daniel in the Old Testament that he read to me, it is the story where King Nebuchadnezzar creates a golden image and commands all men to worship it. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse and are cast into a fiery furnace. In Daniel 3:17-18 they say to the king:

17. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 

18. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. 

But if not. I have faith that God will help me reach what I want, but if not, I must have even more faith. I have a hard time being without some things. I feel more complete when certain things are in my life. I have faith that God will help me find the things that make me whole, but if he doesn't do it in the manner that I would like, which is most likely, I must continue to have faith that my prayers will be answered and my heart will be full once again. 

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

During church today I was overcome with the spirit, I felt as though Heavenly Father had prepared every talk and lesson especially for me. He truly knows what we need. Honestly I am terrified for my future. I do not know where I will go or what will happen. I am afraid, but I will be ok. I can do the things that I think I cannot. For the first time this past week I wasn't hurting. The empty feeling that I have felt lately was filled with the spirit. Everything in life has been carefully planned out for me by God. I don't need to worry. Worrying will not change anything.


 In D&C 101:16 it reads, ..."Be still, and know that I am God."


I wondered what 'Be Still' meant, I think that it means to not worry so much. If I put the gospel first in my life everything will work out and I WILL be happy. 


"Be thou humble, and the Lord they God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers."
-D&C 112:10

Sometimes when we pray to our Father in Heaven we want the answer to be Yes.  We must remember that sometimes when God tells us No, it just means that he has something better for us. A lot of the time after we receive an answer or we are told what to do, we want to know WHY?! Sometimes we aren't told Why because we are not ready to hear it. 

In the hymn, Upon the cross of Calvary, there is a line that reads, 'dying brought new birth'. As we sang that song in sacrament today the thought came to me that Change opens new doors. Without change we will not grow. Without change we would not open the doors that are waiting for us. We would be content with where we are, never growing. We all have a hundred different doors that we can open, and if we ask our Father in Heaven to guide us to the right door he will, and I know that the door he guides us to will bring us more joy and happiness than we can imagine. He might lead us to a door and let us hang out for a while, then kick us out again, but it is all part of his plan. We must look at the big picture and know that with every new door comes hope, and we will be guided to where we need to be as long as we put God first. 

I don't know what the next door for me will bring, but I know that as long as I am living the way I am supposed to then it will bring me great happiness. God loves all of us more than we can imagine. He truly cares for us. He will be there in our times of need to buoy us up. Allow change to happen, and have a little faith.

Happy Sunday :)