Field of Dreams

The other day, I drove by a large lawn that was white with dandelions gone to seed. My first reaction was: “Oh Boy! I bet the neighbors HATE that. But then I remembered my daughter, Marie, at 7 years of age, and the pleasure she found blowing the seeds off a dandelion and making a wish. I realized anew that there are many ways of looking any situation, ranging from great joy to total dejection and despair.

My home teacher from years ago used to say that we should enjoy to the end, rather than endure to the end. In other words, optimism is the key to success in this life. An optimistic view of any situation totally changes perspective.
The neighbors probably viewed the dandelion lawn as the beginning of a large chore, one that would require diligent effort to eradicate the pretty little yellow flowers as they popped up in his lawn.

From the dandelion’s point of view, the seeds represented posterity – the chance to create more dandelions.

From Marie’s 7-year-old point of view, it would be a field of dreams, hopes, magic, and fantasies. She was unfailingly optimistic at that age. She was convinced that she could do anything, from climbing a tree to playing tee ball.

And she still believed in Santa, the tooth fairy, and the Easter bunny, but she also had an implicit belief in the Savior. Of course, the others are just fond memories, but her belief in the Savior continues.

What child has not brought a fistful of yellow dandelions as a spontaneous gift of love for her mother from the bright, still new world around her? And what mother has not accepted them and put them in a glass of water for all to see?

Mother viewed them as a wonderful little gift of love, but dad was just glad she had plucked the heads from the pesky weeds. Mother was an optimist; dad was, if not pessimistic, at least neutral. In Mosiah 3:19, we read:

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

King Benjamin instructs us that we must become as little children. We must be implicitly accepting and trusting just as Marie was, that there is a Savior of the world, that he knows us, and that he has a plan for each of us individually, and all of us collectively. We must understand that only He has power to save.

It would seem that the optimism and trust of a little child are key elements in our progress toward our reunion with our elder brother and our omnipotent Father-in-Heaven. Joseph Smith is quoted in Elder Wirhtlin’s book, Finding Peace in Our Lives:

With his great faith and trust in God, Joseph had an insurmountable optimism. He knew the truth, and the truth made him free—free from fear, free from doubt, and free from pessimism. He said, "If I were sunk in the lowest pit of Nova Scotia, with the Rocky Mountains piled on me, I would hang on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage, and I would come out on top." (Quoted in John Henry Evans, Joseph Smith, An American Prophet, Classics in Mormon Literature, p. 9.)

Section 128 of the Doctrine and Covenants is described in the header as a “Letter from Joseph Smith to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Nauvoo, Illinois, September 6, 1842. (History of the Church 5:148-53.) The prophet wrote in verses 19 and 22-23:

Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy…

Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad…

Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud;…and let all the sons of God shout for joy!

In my mind, the prophet’s optimism could only have come from the knowledge that we are helpless to save ourselves. We are dependent on the Savior, not only for our very existence, not only for material possessions, not only for his love and support, not only for his leadership, but for any possibility of entry into the great kingdom of glory we anticipate and seek. In 2 Nephi 25:23, we read an oft quoted scripture (in part):

…for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.

Bruce C. Hafen, in his book, The Broken Heart: Applying the Atonement to Life's Experiences, helps us to understand this concept:

Our ultimate aspiration is more than being forgiven of sin—we seek to become holy, endowed affirmatively with Christlike attributes, at one with him, like him. Divine grace is the only source that can finally fulfill that aspiration, after all we can do.

This is why it is so important that we follow the instruction in Mosiah 3:19 to remake ourselves into a form that is acceptable to the Lord:

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord,…

King Benjamin is telling us that we can have the same kind of optimism and trust that the prophet Joseph Smith expressed, if we can humble ourselves and be ready to accept the grace of the Lord. Joseph Fielding McConkie, in his book, Answers: Straightforward Answers to Tough Gospel Questions, teaches us of the overriding importance of doing as King Benjamin instructed:

…the grace of God is not the crown upon our labors but rather the heart and soul of our hope of salvation. That such is the case is beyond dispute. Yet it is equally true that only those who do “all that they can do” can receive the fulness of God's grace.

Grace provides the optimism and trust we need to move from a position of enmity with God to readiness to receive the fulness of his grace. The prophet Ether was instructed, as recorded in Ether 12: 26-27:

…the Lord spake unto me, saying: Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek…

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

Let us recognize our weakness and dependence on the Lord. Let us humble ourselves, put off reliance on earthly approbation and wealth, and rather rely on the Lord’s grace every day of our lives to complete our efforts as we try to live the gospel. The optimism and trust of a little child are the keys.

Let us offer the Savior our fistful of dandelions and allow Him add the most rare and beautiful of orchids to our humble bouquet for presentation to our Father, so that we may be judged worthy to rest with Him on the right hand of our Father-in-Heaven.