Rooted in the Gospel

In this last conference Elder Sheldon F. Child of the Seventy talked about our sure foundation; he spoke of a storm that devastated trees in his area –

“He pointed out to me that the trees that survived the storm were planted on firm ground; their roots had to sink deep into the soil to receive nourishment. The trees he had lost were planted near a small stream, where nourishment was readily available. The roots were shallow. They were not anchored deeply enough to protect them from the storm.”

“Our testimonies, like those trees, must be built on a sure foundation, deeply rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that when the winds and rains come into our lives, as they surely will, we will be strong enough to weather the storms that rage about us. Helaman counseled his sons:”

“And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.” Helaman 5:12

~Elder Sheldon F. Child, Of the Seventy

When I heard this talk by Elder Child I recorded this in my journal:

“The other day Teddy asked me why the bushes in our yard had withered and died, and I explained that the drought had killed them, because they needed lots of water to live and several years of drought had finally killed them. He then asked me how it was possible that our Large Maple tree had not died, when everything else around it had. I paused for a moment and then explained that the roots of a tree like our big maple go as far down into the ground as the branches grow upward. I asked him to look up at our tree, as we looked up we observed this massive tree that towers over our house, and I said to him “just as it looks up there, just as high as it reaches, it is the same under the ground, the roots of our tree reach deep into the ground where the ground waters flow to nourish it. So that during the drought the big trees can still drink of the ground waters and live.” As I heard Elder Child’s talk I remember this conversation with Teddy and I thought how this relates to our spiritual roots. As Elder Child explained, our roots must run deep into the Gospel, and like that tree of ours, when our roots run deep we can drink of the ground waters which are the living waters, even when the world is struck with a draught of spiritual weakness, we can grow strong in the gospel.