Falling Among Thorns

The second kind of soil Elder Oaks spoke of was overrun by thorns. As many other speakers on this topic had noted, this ground was good for growing things - it was just growing the wrong things, so when the good seeds fell among the thorns, the thorns choked the life out of them.

I feel that I fit better into this category than the previous one. I have what I consider to be a reasonably strong level of spirituality, but there are other things in my life, mostly habits, hobbies, and attitudes, that keep me from being the kind of disciple God wants me to be. Life throws stuff at us. We're born with natural appetites, we develop attitudes, and the world provides us with an endless supply of potential interests and activities. While none of these things are inherently bad (roses and raspberry bushes have thorns, too), they can become harmful to us if they consume too much of our lives. They may be good, or maybe just "okay," but they can keep us from being our best.

Our responsibility is to weed out the things in our lives that are holding us back from our true potential. The trouble is that this is much easier said than done. Weeds are resilient. Once habits and attitudes are set, they can be hard to change or overcome, and considering that these are thorny weeds, we can expect the process of removing them to be painful. Still, since we're cultivating a garden on which our spiritual lives depend, it'll be worth the pain and effort it'll take to remove the thorns.

The parable of the soils seems to go through a progression of soils that get better and better for growing things. As we strive to improve ourselves, we may end up following the same progression. In the "falling by the wayside" state, we're not receptive to God's teachings at all. In the "stony ground" state, we let the gospel grow on us, at least superficially, but we don't let it into our hearts. In "falling among thorns," we let the gospel take root in us, but there are still things that prevent it from growing as well as it should. As we weed those things out of our lives, our soil becomes "good soil," but even then, there's still progress to be made.

Just as the good ground in the parable "brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold," there are varying degrees of righteousness. How much fruit we produce once we've prepared the soil and removed the weeds depends on how well we water and fertilize the seeds we've planted. We don't become spiritually perfect just by not committing sins. There are many good things we should be doing instead. Even after we've removed the distractions and evil influences from our lives, if we don't nourish our testimonies, they won't grow. On the plus side, if we do nourish our testimonies by doing all those things we've been told in Sunday School to do, there's no limit to how great we can grow or how much fruit we can produce.

The comforting and intimidating parts of eternal progression are that we can always improve and that there will always be room for improvement. Whatever weeds have grown in your life, they can be removed through the power of the Atonement. However small your testimony is now, it can grow through regular prayer and scripture study. However good or bad your spirituality is now, God can help you make it better. That's what I like most about this parable. I may have fallen among thorns, but I know the hand of God is helping me pull them.