first post

So I thought I’d write the first post so everyone can see kinda what I’m looking for but really it can be anything as long as it’s on the spiritual plane in some way.
So, last summer in RS we were challenged to read the Book of Mormon in 100 days. For each day there was a reading assignment and a thought question. We put those into notebooks so that we can write down our thoughts when we read. It was really a great thing. It got me started on a scripture reading journal that I have been able to write a lot about what came to mind while I read the scriptures. I got lots of insights that way.
Well, since completing that program I’ve decided to go back and read again and keep another journal, not with the same reading assignments and questions but blank, for me to go at my own pace this time and write whatever I am feeling as I read. This journal has turned into not just for scriptures but for anything I am thinking about spiritually. It’s like my own small plates. :)
Anyway, an entry from a couple days ago I thought would be good to share:
I was reading Jacob 5, the parable of the Olive trees, where the Lord has His vineyard and His old beloved tree is failing so he moves some of it’s branches out and intermixes them through the other trees of the vineyard. And then he takes some of the branches of the wild trees and grafts them to his beloved tree. The tree being His people and the wild trees the world etc. The branches from the original tree are strong at first and don’t let the “world” trees affect them. But then after a season they become affected by the “world” trees and their fruit is bitter.
Alan and I and our family are a branch in the orchard and our children are the fruit. It’s up to us to bring forth good and tame fruit. We, ourselves, have to be good and tame and take nourishment from what the Lord has given us – scriptures, church, the gospel, good friends and family, our faith, prayer, temple work etc…
We cannot let the world affect us and become part of us or the fruit will become part of the world. We need to send that nourishment from the Lord to our own fruit so that later they can become tame branches and put forth their own good and tame fruit. And so we can all be preserved and called the Lord’s.