Reaping More Than We Sow (6/19/2009)

"If we sow thistles, we don't really plan to get strawberries. If we sow hate, we don't really expect to participate in an abundance of love. We get back, in kind, that which we reap. Then another thought came tumbling as I thought of (the prisoners I had just visited): it's one things to reap in kind, but we reap, somehow, always in greater quantity. We sow a little thistle, and we get a lot of thistle - years and years of it, big bushes and branches of it. We never get rid of it unless we cut it out. If we sow a little bit of hate, before we know it we've reaped a lot of hate - smoldering and festering and belligerent and finally warring and malicious hate." -Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

This quote comes from a talk by Elder Holland that I have always enjoyed. I think that his thought here is correct - we often reap more than sow. The point I would like to share though is that this goes both ways. Just as he illustrated how sowing ill seeds results in a larger harvest of ill, I believe that as we sow seeds of good, we will see a bounteous harvest of good. When we are kind, when we are charitable, we not only help bless the lives of others, we also reap the good feeling that comes from knowing we have done good. Additionally, we receive the blessings that our Father gives us for following His commandments to care for each other.

The list of benefits that come from sowing good seeds goes on, but Elder Holland's statement is true - for good or for evil, we will always reap far more than we sow.