Pluck the Fruit Thereof

One day two of the children had been bickering for hours. All my attempts to resolve the situation had failed. Finally I offered a prayer, and an idea came to me. I called the girls to sit down with me at the table. I opened the Pearl of Great Price, reminding my daughters, “Remember that place in the Book of Moses that we read together where the Lord is weeping and Enoch is trying to find out why. Remember how Enoch was so amazed that Heavenly Father, who was all-powerful, could cry. Do you remember what the Lord finally said?” I read, “they are the workmanship of my own hands, … but, behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood” (Moses 7:32–33). The Spirit moved me so that my quiet tears were added to the reading. I looked up at my girls and added, “It’s not just me who desires that you don’t fight; it’s the Lord.” The time for contention was over.

For years—more often with no dramatic or apparent positive results—we’ve read the scriptures with our children. Alma tells us that “because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, … by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof” (Alma 32:42). Of course, even scriptural help doesn’t solve forever any given problem. But occasionally the planting bears fruit, and the fruit is sweet. Dianne Dibb Forbis, Rexburg, Idaho