[RST] Achieving our glorious potential

Spring is in the air, and winter’s denuded trees are about to burst forth into blossom and leaf. I took this photo of a magnolia bud on my recent wanderings, and it is bursting with potential. In a day or two its beauty will become evident, but for now it remains hidden and unknown. The plant’s future magnificence is both innate and cultivated: it holds within it all the God-given glory determined by its genetic makeup, and yet there are also external influences of nurturing and tending that give it health and vitality and allow it to fulfil the measure of its creation.

We, too, hold within ourselves a remarkable beauty and glorious potential. It is there because we are children of God. It is waiting to blossom. Sometimes, however, we struggle to believe in ourselves, or we hesitate about our readiness to bloom. We have need of nurturing, of sustaining and nourishing, of encouragement and support. It is ironic, perhaps, that not only do we need these things, but we also have the capacity — and even the commandment — that we should be providing these things to others. We are often the agents that help others to bloom, and then, in so helping, our own buds begin to grow and flower, because our service brings blessings, because of the potential already within us that is part of our divine nature and is further fed by our good works, and because there are others sustaining us through their own labours on our behalf.

May we have faith that God created us and knows the wonderful people we can be, and may we strive to be the gardeners who nourish and cultivate the realisation of divine potential in others.

Note: The Relief Society Thoughts posts are reprints of little mini-sermon/parable/homily-thingies that I’ve been writing for the women in my Relief Society group at Church. I write them when inspiration strikes and email them out as well as posting them to our facebook page. I thought I’d add them to my blog as well. You can find others by clicking on the “Relief Society Thoughts” category label, in the grey box at the end of this post, and the most recent of the thoughts should have a list of all the posts by title at the end. Previous posts are:

The stinging nettles in my garden (Aug 2014)
The black Sunday shoes (Jul 2014)
An unspectacular sunset (Jul 2014)
On not doing ALL the things (Jun 2014)
Gulp! I didn’t see that coming (Mar 2014, which sort of explains the job of “Relief Society President”)