Growing Toward Heaven Though Rooted on Earth

In his April 2015 General Conference talk, The Lord is My Light, Elder Quentin L. Cook used the example of young sunflowers to teach us how we can find hope and thrive, even in a challenging world.

One of the remarkable characteristics of young wild sunflowers, in addition to growing in soil that is not hospitable, is how the young flower bud follows the sun across the sky. In doing so, it receives life-sustaining energy before bursting forth in its glorious yellow color.

Like the young sunflower, when we follow the Savior of the world, the Son of God, we flourish and become glorious despite the many terrible circumstances that surround us. He truly is our light and life.

Everyone faces many challenges in life. Thankfully, we never have to face them alone. As long as we turn our hearts to God and look to Him for guidance and strength, He can empower us to resist and overcome the evil in the world. With His help, we can grow to become like Him, no matter what kind of soil we've been planted in. One thing that we should remember is that the world in which we live now was not our first home. Our roots go deeper than that. We lived in heaven before we came here and we can live in heaven again. We just need to fix our eyes on heaven, draw upon the power that comes from there, and continue to grow towards it.