Partaking of the Fruit

In Lehi's account of his dream of the Tree of Life, he tells us about the fruit, which Nephi later tells us represented the Love of God., the sacrifice of our Savior.  Lehi tells us that he did partake of the fruit.  And I've been pondering about whether we partake of the fruit in our lives.

I had written something on partaking of the fruit yesterday, but wasn't happy with it.  So I just left it on the screen and went away to do other things.  Today, when I came back to edit it, there was nothing there.  It's OK.  I would have started over anyway.  I've thought and pondered during the course of the Sabbath day what partaking of the fruit looks like, and the ways in which we do or do not partake.

The most obvious answer is that when we accept the Gospel, we partake of the fruit.  In the vision, many people found their way to the Tree, using the Rod of Iron, and partook of the fruit, but then fell away because of the cares of the world, or the peer pressure of the finely-dressed people in the Great and Spacious Building.  What I'm trying to say here is that we don't just partake once and then we're set for life.  That's a lot like the Born-Again theory.  Just say it once and you never need to worry again.

No, in our Church, we believe that we must keep pressing forward, keep partaking of the fruit.

In my mind, I could see a video game with little clusters of fruit here and there in our little video world.  We wander through this world, and if we pick up those clusters of fruit, here some and there  some, a little bell rings and we accumulate extra points (the Spirit).  But what if we wander around and ignore the fruit and miss the extra points?  What if we don't partake?

At church yesterday, it seemed that we'd be partaking of the fruit by just being there.  At least that seems like what should happen.  We partook of the Sacrament.  That would be partaking of the fruit, right?    But were we thinking about what to make for dinner, or about the Savior?  We listened to the speakers.   Were we focusing on the message presented or were we dozing?  Did we sing the hymns with joy and the Spirit, or were our minds elsewhere, if we sang at all!  Don't get me started on that one!  How can we have the Spirit in our meetings when half of the people never even open their mouths?

The same principle applies in so many area of our lives.  We can partake of the fruit as we pray and study our scriptures.  Or we can go through the motions and miss the fruit and miss the blessings.

Sometimes I do better than other times.  But I desperately want and need to have the Spirit with me at all times, and so I want to try harder to partake of the fruit whenever and wherever I have the chance.