When I was a little girl,
I always enjoyed when we sang the hymn “We Are
Sowing” at
Church. The tune was catchy, and I could remember the
words….”We are sowing,
daily sowing countless seeds of good and ill…” The
four verses pretty much
tell the parable in Matthew 13, but that particular
citation in Matthew is not
in the scripture notation at the bottom of the hymn
page. However,
this story of Jesus was well-known even to me at that time,
and I could see the
whole story in my mind as we sang the words.
I had chosen to live
the doctrines of the gospel and hold onto the covenants I
had made. So, I
never saw myself in this parable, except having received the
seed in good ground.
Until we recently studied
the parables in Come Follow Me.
This time around I
actually paid attention to the part of Matthew 13:23 which
talks about bringing forth
fruit “some an hundredfold, some sixty, some
thirty.” What
exactly did that mean? Something like the parable of the talents,
maybe? During
part of the study I did, I learned that it meant some of us
have the capability of
yielding 100, like the prophet and the general authorities
and others that are admirable
for their great contributions. Others at
another level can produce
a goodly amount at 60 depending on their situations
at the
time. Then sometimes we are in a season of only being capable of 30
perhaps because of family
circumstances, health constraints, or other
limitations.
But this is the most
important part of what I learned this month. All those
yields are good. And
I needed to stop worrying that so and so was seemingly
doing more than I
was. That another so and so was at the forefront of
everything that seemed to
be of importance. More visible stuff that definitely
looks
impressive. But it doesn’t matter. We yield what we can
at the time:
30, 60,
100. There is no competition.
And for a very competitive
person like I am, that was a good lesson to learn.
My “thirty” contributions
are just as important as are the “one hundred”
contributors’. President
Nelson and others have said their callings are not
more important than anyone
else’s. All are needed.
This lesson has become a
constant daily reminder for me…what I am doing, if it
is wholehearted, is also
valuable. My contributions are good, too. Just
different than others’. All of
it counts as bringing forth fruits.
No competition!
