Finding your Sacred grove.

When i was living in new jersey i was privillegde enough to visit the sacred grove we were also so privileged to have a the mission pres. of the Palmyra NY mission speak to us, and he spoke of a tree in the grove and how it was the biggest tree and one of the oldest trees in the entire grove... he was there one day and the tree was standing tall and proud and through the night the tree just snapped and fell. the man that was to care for these trees in the grove went to see what had happened, and this tree had been rotting from the inside and dying from the inside out. He then called the mission president to come see.


He explained to him that the roots for this tree weren't planted deep enough and this tree had only been getting nutrients from the top of the soil and was snaking water from other trees and that's why it grew so large. the mission president asked him to not clear the tree out because he had the perfect way to tie it into the gospel. If we don't dig our roots into the ground deep enough we can't really have a firm testimony of this gospel, when we borrow it from others and eventually fall like this tree. he then told us all we need to find our own sacred grove to go when we need to pray and communicate with the lord, he said to find our own place we could escape from the worldy things to study and to build our own testimony. I kind of had a moment like this my last bit in new jersey. i always thought that my roots were pretty firmly planted... but through small steps things became a little less important to me... i only made it to one sacrament meeting and it was my last Sunday there. That was my first wrong turn, i would pick and choose when FHE, Institute or reading the book of Mormon conveniently fit into my "busy" life routine. day by day was a little less happy until one day i didn't really know where my testimony ran to and like that tree was ready to fall. that is when i made the decision to move home. since then i have had to climb my way out of a hole and was able to find my own testimony, to really feed and nourish it to let it plant so deeply in my heart i would not lose it again. I started taking baby steps back on to the path in the right direction... through small steps i was feeding my own testimony.. i paid my tithing for the first time since i was 16 or 17 ... it felt so great, i am making more of an effort to read the BOM and to pray, i can feel my testimony growing and developing so much more... I have found my sacred grove where i can feel my saviors love around me.


I am happier than i have been in the last year, i have learned what motions to make and what steps to take that will eventually lead me towards the temple. Things in my life are falling into place more perfectly than ever, because i made that decision to not be like the tree in the grove that fell... I made the choice to stand up on my own and to plant a seed of my very own, to nourish and watch stretch its roots deeper and deeper into my heart.