Peaches

For the first time, our peach trees are producing so many peaches that I do not plan on buying any from the orchards.  We have so many peaches!  This is just one of many pickings we have done. There are many lessons from a harvest we can learn. It seems like we talk about those lessons all of the time.  Work hard and be patient. The beautiful harvest will come.  You reap what you sow. These lessons are good and true.

As I looked at some of our peaches, I started to ponder a different lesson. Some of us are bruised and have ugly scars.  We aren't the first of the crop that bring the extra money or make beautiful jars of food for the future.

Heavenly Father still has use for us. He knows how to cut out the bad parts and use what he can from us. When working with peaches, I use these kind of peaches for fruit leather.  The fruit leather is made from the "seconds or thirds" of the crop.  The icky peaches make leather, and we like the fruit leather the best.

We say it, but do we realize what we are saying? There is a place for everyone with Heavenly Father. I have been trying to go to the temple once a week and that has been a blessing to me. It seems to be like the harvest lesson. Day to day, the work doesn't seem to make much difference. Doing the day to day work in the garden doesn't seem to make much difference.  Then, one day, we get a beautiful harvest. Going to the temple once a week has felt much like that for me. Does it matter? Am I making a difference? Am I improving?

One day, the harvest will come.