05/27/2021
I was given the most incredible bouquet of flowers like I had never seen before. And so I did what any woman would do: I found the perfect spot, and each time I passed by it, I would admire its beauty.
The design was so unique, so intricate, with leaves twisting in and out of the flowers and different heights and arrays of colors climbing high as if magic had made them.
However, just as always happens, the flowers slowly wilted and died. Their time had come and gone.
I carried the once-beautiful florals to the trash and turned them upside down with a firm jerk of the pot to empty them into the trash.
Nothing.
āThatās fine. Iāll just give it a nice little shake. ā¦ OK, a firm shake. Nothing again! How could these delicate things be so strong?!ā
I began to take the arrangement apart piece by piece. And as I gently pulled, I realized that there was something more, something I had missed all along.
Every single piece had a unique device to hold it in place. Small coils, wires, and even lattice totally hidden to the naked eye had been used to construct a strong, beautiful, and long-lasting floral arrangement.
By pulling it apart and seeing how it was constructed, I could finally see: a strength existed from within.
Sometimes we have to be pulled apart to see the strength we are made of. It is the only way.
Sometimes life tears and pulls, yanks and grabs at us, and we are stuck feeling like a plucked plant. But if we are mindful and choose to look inside with eyes that see, we learn we are made of hidden strength.
However, as with the flowers, that strength is not our own. It is something placed within, something that cannot be removed unless we choose to do so ourselvesāsomething that we can remember is there, helping us stand tall, fulfilling every bit of our divine ministry until the work is done.
āYea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all thingsā (Alma 26:12).
