#96 Partaking

I love cilantro. A lot. Once I even told a boy that I would rather get bouquets of cilantro than bouquets of flowers. So when we had an Enrichment activity (this was a while ago, right before I moved to Seattle) and planted cilantro seeds, oh man, was I excited. I had never grown anything in my life (well except for my chia pet that my roommate tried to eat), but I had the desire because like I said, I love cilantro. So I took good care of my little cilantro plant. I even created a mini-greenhouse effect using a plastic baggie. And it grew and grew.

I thought of this experience as I read Alma 32 last week. Those are obviously the same steps that Alma asks us to take with the word of God--prepare our hearts, desire and nourish.

But actually my cilantro plant story has a sad ending. I never actually partook of my cilantro. I was waiting to have a big taco party before I moved to Seattle, but in the chaos of moving, that never happened.

And that's when it hit me: partaking is also an action that WE have to do. We can't just stop at the nourishing and think that the partaking part is a given. I mean, think of those people in Lehi's vision, who made it through all the mists of darkness, only to come to the fruit and become ashamed.

And I thought about all those times in my life when for whatever reason, I don't partake of God's love or of the Atonement. I do have the desire, I do spend a major portion of my life nourishing my testimony by prayer and scripture study, but whether it's pride or whether it's because I feel I don't deserve it, sometimes I neglect to take that final ACTION and actually partake of the Atonement.