Chapter 3: Gradually Replace Negative with Positive

* I spent most of the day writing chapter 14 and finally posted it. I thought I would post what I've written so far for this chapter as well. (I added to it on July 14th.)

Do you have a favorite personal improvement scripture? I have several. However, the one at the top of my list has special meaning to me. The Lord showed me the key to my future progress sometime before April 2009, which was long before I was able to actually apply it very well. He helped me notice these verses in Jacob 5 as I was listening to The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ on CD. A lot of people probably don’t notice these two verses (and I hadn’t before this either) because this chapter is an allegory about the House of Israel. It’s a very long and repetitive allegory with lots of pruning and digging and grafting and dunging… It was definitely an act of divine intervention for me to notice specific verses this far into such a repetitive chapter – especially since I was only listening and not following along in the text.

Jacob 5:65-66 says, “And as they begin to grow ye shall clear away the branches which bring forth bitter fruit, according to the strength of the good and the size thereof; and ye shall not clear away the bad thereof all at once, lest the roots thereof should be too strong for the graft, and the graft thereof shall perish, and I lose the trees of my vineyard.

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...”

As I discussed in the previous chapter, this is all about balance – which is something I’m constantly striving for. It’s impossible to change everything about yourself or your circumstances (or fill-in-the-blank) all at once. Lasting change usually occurs by working on one thing at a time – replacing one bad thing with something good. Replacing negative thoughts or addictions with something more positive, productive, or healthy. And then the next and then the next. Line upon line, baby steps, or however else you want to look at it. It's a true principle and it works.

Replacing negative with positive is at the core of repentance. In 2015, I gave a lesson to the women in our church congregation using parts of a talk by Jörg Klebingat. He gave some valuable counsel on this topic: “ …Acknowledge and face your weaknesses, but don’t be immobilized by them, because some of them will be your companions until you depart this earth life. No matter what your current status, the very moment you voluntarily choose honest, joyful, daily repentance by striving to simply do and be your very best, the Savior’s Atonement envelops and follows you, as it were, wherever you go” (“Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence,” Ensign, Nov. 2014).

Another favorite personal improvement scripture is also found in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It says, “And if men come unto me I will show until them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me, for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them” (Ether 12:27). Dieter F. Uchtdof explains, “Being able to see ourselves clearly is essential to our spiritual growth and well-being. If our weaknesses and shortcomings remain obscured in the shadows, then the redeeming power of the Savior cannot heal them and make them strengths. Ironically, our blindness toward our human weaknesses will also make us blind to the divine potential that our Father yearns to nurture within each of us. (“Lord, Is It I?” Ensign, November 2014).

Just as the vineyard was pruned by the Master Gardener in the allegory, our lives can be shaped and molded by a loving Savior. As we turn to Him and ask for help and strength in our efforts to replace negative with positive in our lives, we will receive help beyond our own. As Ezra Taft Benson explained, “When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities.” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Ezra Taft Benson, 1988.) As we repeat the process of gradually replacing the negative with positive in our life, the Savior’s grace can change us and help us become more than we could ever be on our own.