How to Grow Tomatoes

Last Saturday, Elder M. Russell Ballard told a wonderful story about a little girl with a tomato plant.
Now I wish to share just that part of the talk.

I am reminded of a sweet seven-year-old showing her grandfather a small tomato plant she had started from seed as part of a second-grade school project. 

She explained that from one tiny seed would come a plant. And if the plant were cared for, it would grow many tomatoes that would each have many seeds. 

She said, “And if all of those seeds were planted and grew more tomatoes, and you planted all of those seeds, in a few seasons you would have millions of tomatoes.” 

“All,” she said in amazement, “from one little seed.” 

But then she said, “I almost killed my plant. I left it in a dark room and forgot to water it. When I remembered the plant, it was all wilted and dead looking. I cried because I thought of all of those millions of tomatoes that would never grow.” 

She was then excited to tell her grandfather about the “miracle” that happened. 

She explained, “Momma said maybe the plant wasn’t dead. Maybe all it needed was some water and some light to bring life back. 

“And she was right. I gave the plant some water, and I put it in the window for light. And guess what?” she asked. “It came back to life, and now it’s going to grow millions of tomatoes!” 

Her small tomato plant, so full of potential but so weakened and wilted from unintentional neglect, was strengthened and revived through the simple ministration of water and light by the little girl’s loving and caring hands. 

Brothers and sisters, as the literal spirit children of our loving Heavenly Father, we have unlimited, divine potential. But if we are not careful, we can become like the wilted tomato plant. We can drift away from the true doctrine and gospel of Christ and become spiritually undernourished and wilted, having removed ourselves from the divine light and living waters of the Savior’s eternal love and priesthood power. 

If any one of you feels your faith or your testimony of Heavenly Father’s plan is less than you know it should be, then turn more fully to the Savior. Let His light and His living water do for you and your family what a little water and light did in bringing life back to the weakened tomato plant.

Jesus said:

“If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (John 7:37).

“Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14).

“I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).

This is definitely a message that I needed to rehear. First, to consider the tomato plant's infinite potential and my own infinite worth. I often judge myself by how foolish I am and how little I accomplish, and I forget to see myself as Heavenly Father sees me. He knows what I'm really worth and what I can really do. He also knows what I need to do to reach me full potential.

That's the second part of the message, the need for spiritual nourishment. That's why God committed me to blogging every morning. He wants me to spend at least some time every day thinking about spiritual matters, feeding my soul. This morning, feeding my soul wasn't my top priority. I opened a tab to youtube and watched Celine Dion sing a duet with Josh Groban. Then I watched Superman survive an insanely powerful explosion and fight a guy with psychic powers. Then I read about the bad things that can happen if you mix the right chemicals in a pressure cooker and heat it to 300 degrees Celsius. Elder Ballard's message was still open in another tab, but it was the last thing on my mind. The internet is a great tool, but it's also a terrible trap. In the future, I must learn to BLOG FIRST, before doing anything else online.

The final part of the message is a message of hope. By some miracle, I'm not dead yet - physically or spiritually. I've wilted, but there's still some hope. His light can still lift me. His Word can still nourish me. As far gone as I feel I am, I'm not beyond His help. Picturing myself as that little tomato plant, I feel a little pathetic. I wonder, am I really worth saving? Is it worth spending all that time to nourish and nurse back to health one small tomato plant? Wouldn't it be simpler to just let it die? Yes, it would be simpler, and faster, and much, much easier to just let it die, but that's not what the Lord does. It's not what the Savior does. Jesus saves. No matter how long it takes, no matter what the cost, no matter how uphill the battle for my soul is, as long as there's even a glimmer of hope left in me, Jesus will fight for it.

I can't imagine how much Jesus must love me. To care for me enough to still care about me. To keep fighting for my soul even in those dark moments when I'm ready to surrender. No matter how lost I get, He's still trying to lead me. He's still on my side and always will be, even when I'm not. He will never give up on me. He's stubborn like that. He loves me too much to quit on me, ever. I really, really need that sometimes. And I'm afraid I'm going to keep needing it for a really long time. And somehow, He's okay with that. To Him, it doesn't matter how long it takes me to get better, to improve. He's just glad that I'm improving. I'm grateful that He's still my Savior, my Gardener, my Friend.