1.    Weeds and Flowers:

       Despair, hopelessness, discouragement, etc. are like weeds.  They pop up so easily in the
       natural man and it is a constant battle to rid our lives of them.

       Faith, hope, patience, love, testimony, etc. are like flowers.  We have to work continually at
       nurturing them, to keep them growing and beautifying our lives and the lives of others.

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2.   This title was inspired by an experience I had two years ago.  I like to vacation in the mountains,     yet the summer of 1999 was the first time I had ever traveled to nearby Wyoming to visit the Grand Tetons. A friend and I arrived at the national park in the late afternoon. As we drove along the park road to get closer to those majestic peaks, we noticed an area where we could pull off and read signs telling us the names and geologic history of the mountains. As we stood outside the car, drinking in the beauty of the scene, a van pulled off the road and parked beside our car, and a couple probably in their early forties got out to admire the mountains, too.

I noticed that the license plate on their van indicated they were from one of the flat midwestern states, and I thought perhaps the mountains would be especially awe-inspiring to them. As I turned to go back to the car, I noticed in the rear of their van two teenaged boys--presumably the sons of this couple-- seated with their backs to the Grand Tetons and showing absolutely no interest in looking at them. One boy had headphones on and his eyes shut, apparently caught up in whatever he was listening to.  The other had his nose in a magazine, doggedly reading, seemingly oblivious to the beauty that surrounded him.

Now I don't know why these two boys were ignoring the view; maybe it was the last day of their trip and they had already seen enough. But, unfairly or not, I imagined that they had come on vacation at their parents' insistence, and now, just to show how cool they were, they were refusing to be impressed by the sights their parents had brought them to see.

As I drove away from this family, I thought that many of us often behave in the way these boys did: There are inspiring things our Father in Heaven wants to show us and wonderful experiences He wants to give us, yet we are so absorbed in trivial, worldly interests that we sometimes turn our backs to the thrilling views of eternity that are available if we would only lift up our eyes and see.

Today my desire is to help us all lift up our eyes and see the heights to which we may aspire if we will take full advantage of the opportunities offered us here.

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