Lessons from the Flower Bed

While home for the weekend, I started work on my poor neglected flower box. It hasn't been touched (basically) since I left on my mission, two years ago. Mom took the opportunity to plant some Grape Hyacinths in there in the spring this year (unbeknownst to me while I was up at school). she informed me of this while I was looking at my box, trying to determine if any of the plants that were supposed to be annuals were still there. They weren't there, sadly. So, I started work on my box, and per Mom's request, making sure to go around the Grape Hyacinths. While I was working on it, I thought to myself just how much easier it would be to tear it all up, and start again, and just forget the Grape Hyacinths. My mind then wandered to the gospel, and I realized that although there are times in life it might seem easier just to rip everything out and start over, is it really worth it? if we were to compare the Grape Hyacinths to the gospel, and the flower bed to life in general, would it really be worth it? Would it really be worth loosing the gospel, just to make life easier to start over with it all? I thought about some friends who are struggling right now in their life with different issues and temptations and wondered, would their life be easier if they just gave up on everything, and just started over?
It made me stop and think. Yes, it might seem easier in the short term to just rip it all out, start fresh, and forget everything that you once knew. But how would life without the gospel, without having that center in Christ really feel and work? Having that in life is indeed a strength in hard times.
As I kept working in the box, getting rid of weeds here, moving an ant trap there, it made me keep thinking. As long as I knew some boundaries (made by going in with a small hand shovel, and sometimes just fingers), and knew what parts were the Grape Hyacinths, I was able to easily avoid digging them up. I could take the big shovel, and just get all the other stuff out of there, and start completely fresh. Same with life. As we get in there, and take great care, noticing which parts are worth saving, which parts will continue to help us in life, we can make sure to go far around them. Sometimes it takes a lot of work, and we have to carefully go through everything to know which is which, but it is so worth it in the end.