Conversion Process

"For it grieveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard; wherefore ye shall clear away the bad according as the good shall grow, that the root and the top may be equal in strength, until the good shall overcome the bad, and the bad be hewn down and cast into the fire, that they cumber not the ground of my vineyard; and thus will I sweep away the bad out of my vineyard." (Jacob 5:66)

This allegory of the olive tree is meant to represent the House of Israel, and how at some times, they have been righteous and other times they have been wicked. Included in the allegory is how the Lord of the vineyard grafted branches into other places and things. This represents times when there have been branches of the House of Israel sent to different areas of the earth. For example, Lehi, when he took his family out of Jerusalem. His family was one of those branches that were sent off to another land.

Recently, I taught a lesson at church about conversion. We talked about how it is a process, and how you go about always trying to improve yourself. As I read this verse, I realized that the same thing was being discussed. I think that sometimes in my life, I think about all the things I'm doing wrong (or more realistically, all the things I'm not doing right that I should be), and I think "I've got to do better". But the list is too big and would take too much to fix everything, so what happens? I end up doing nothing, or at best, very little.

A better way to go is as the scripture describes with the tree. Essentially, keep doing better and better, little by little, so I don't become overwhelmed, and each time I do something like that, I become more and more converted. Adding little good things bit by bit, and removing negative things bit by bit, it's hard to get overwhelmed with that, and it is a great way to keep moving toward conversion.

This is a much better approach. I have added a couple of those good things in my life, and I hope to trim off a few of the more negative things, and we'll go from there. Onward and definitely upward.