Work to Change the World!
E.R. Harding, 8/97

A mother and daughter were driving through the countryside enjoying it's beauty.  Let me quote in the mother's own words the rest of the story.

Then we turned a corner -- and I stopped and gasped in amazement.  From the top of the mountain, sloping for several acres across folds and valleys, were rivers of daffodils in radiant bloom.  A profusion of color -- from the palest ivory to the deepest lemon to the most vivid salmon -- blazed like a carpet before us.  It looked as though the sun had tipped over and spilled gold down the mountainside.

At the center cascaded a waterfall of purple hyacinths.  Here and there were coral-colored tulips.  And as if this bonanza were not enough, western bluebirds frolicked over the heads of the daffodils, their magenta breasts and sapphire wings like a flutter of jewels.

A riot of questions filled my mind.  Who created such beauty?  Why?  How?  As we approached the home that stood in the center of the property, we saw a sign:  ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS I KNOW YOU ARE ASKING.  The first answer was: ONE WOMAN -- TWO HANDS, TWO FEET AND VERY LITTLE BRAIN.  The second was: ONE AT A TIME.  The third: STARTED IN 1958.   As we drove home, I was so moved by what we had seen I could scarcely speak.  “She changed the world,” I finally said, “one bulb at a time.  She started almost 40 years ago, probably just the beginning of an idea, but she kept at it.”

The wonder of it would not let me go.  “Imagine,” I said, “if I’d had a vision and worked at it, just a little bit every day, what might I have accomplished?”

Carolyn looked at me sideways, smiling.  “Start tomorrow,” she said.  “Better yet, start today.”

Bruce R. McConkie said, “Work is the great basic principle which makes all things possible both in time and in eternity.  Without work there would be neither existence, creation, redemption, salvation, or temporal necessities for mortal man.".   We often think that nothing we do will make a difference in the world.  Our vote really doesn't count, what difference will one small voice make!  How will one good deed or one small job make any thing really change?  Genesis 3:19 says that work is a blessing that brings salvation.  As the women who changed the world with her flowers we can also change our world with consistent work and effort even though our efforts seem small!

Home  |  Hidden Stones Index