Do you have your boots buckled up tight enough?

I recall one particular day when I was on the mountain snowboarding. My legs were getting tired and I was fatigued. I started to crash and fall.  It seemed that no matter how hard I tried to stay up, I fell to the hard, icy snow. When I moved my feet in position to carve into the icy snow, the snowboard did not respond. Down I fell again. I remember laying down on the icy snow and thinking, "I'm not going to get to the bottom of the mountain." I was so sore, and I told myself, "I'm done!"

Life is that way sometimes. No matter how hard we try, we sometimes keep falling. When we fall, we hit the icy hard ground. It doesn't feel good. We hurt, we feel like we are done sometimes, and wonder if we can get to the bottom of the mountain.

On the mountain that day, I did get back up and I did eventually did get to the bottom of the mountain.  I reached down to unbuckle by boots from the bindings.  I noticed that the buckles were loose. Each time when I would move by feet to carve, they would move within the bindings. This caused by board not to respond. I thought, "How long have I been trying to snowboard like this? No wonder the board was not responding the way it was suppose to when I attempted to carve in the snow."

In life, are your boots buckled up tight enough? How are your prayers with your Heavenly Father? Are you even praying? Are you reading the word of God? How is your relationship with your Savior, Jesus Christ? Are you applying the atonement of Jesus Christ in your life? These are valuable tools you have to help your "snowboard" work in your life. Sometimes we focus on how hard and icy the ground is each time we fall, we wonder if we are ever going to make it, and we forget to look at the simple things that we have that will help us get to the bottom of the mountain.  The time is now to tighten up those bindings. It makes a big difference.

Uncover the borer.

I have some nectar trees, a peach, nectarine, and apricot tree. These three trees produce beautiful sweet peaches, nectarines and apricots. Just over a year ago I learned of something that killed a neighbor's nectarine tree: Borers. Moths come and lay eggs at the base of the trees.  These eggs hatch and produce larva called borers. The larva then create a home and eat their way into the bark of the trees and can eventually kill the tree.  As you look at the base of the tree, you may or may not see sap exit from the bark. If you do see sap, start to dig into it and more than likely you may find these borers eating away at your tree. If you don't see sap, don't assume they are not there. Dig down around the trunk and clear out the dirt up to 6 to 8 inches. There you may find sap leaking and discover the hidden borer. I have found that I need to regularly keep the base of the trunk of my trees clean and uncovered.  I also regularly take a sharp object like a nail to kill the borer to save my trees.

As I have reflected on this experience, I thought how this is like life. There are borers in our life. They can take on different forms. It could be sin, it could be depression, it could be things we are ashamed of, it could be pornography, it could be things we've kept covered up for many years. Much like the borer, it eats away at us and could eventually destroy us. We feel like we can keep it covered much like the the soil covering up the borer in the base of the trees. We feel we can fix or handle it on our own.

We cannot do this on our own. We need each other. We need most importantly, our Savior Jesus Christ. Only He can make us whole. He is the master of the vineyard, and He is here to nurture and take care of us. Let us not hide our sins, let us not believe we can do this on our own.

My trees produce the most sweet fruit. You too, are needed to produce sweet fruit. You are of great value. You matter, you belong! You belong to you Father in Heaven. He loves you and wants you to return to Him.