The Loftiness of the Vineyard

In the allegory of the tame and wild olive trees, the Lord of the vineyard and the servant worked relentlessly to bring forth fruit in the vineyard. But after much labor of nourishing, pruning, and digging about the trees, they beheld that most of the fruit was bad. We read, “And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard wept, and said unto the servant: What could I have done more for my vineyard?... And now, behold, notwithstanding all the care which we have taken of my vineyard, the trees thereof have become corrupted, that they bring forth no good fruit…. But what could I have done more in my vineyard? Have I slackened mine hand, that I have not nourished it? Nay, I have nourished it, and I have digged about it, and I have pruned it, and I have dunged it; and I have stretched forth mine hand almost all the day long.” As parents trying to teach our children the gospel, we can at times feel like this in our own small way. As we labor, seemingly endlessly, to care for them and teach them the principles of the gospel and help them make right choices, in some moments—when our homes are filled with contention and anger and even rebellion—we may feel that we have made little progress in helping them. In that situation, this allegory helps encourages us to never give up: “Spare it a little longer.” Again and again the master of the vineyard and the servant kept working even when they were discouraged by the results. We should never stop trying to “nourish” and “prune” and care for our children by leading them along the covenant path no matter what setbacks we have encountered. We must “labor diligently with our might in the vineyard” no matter how many times we feel that we already have, always hoping that our efforts will lead to gospel fruit in those we love (Jacob 5:41, 46-47, 50, 61).    

                 Another way that this allegory helps us when we feel that our efforts to raise our children in the gospel have not been particularly fruitful is by identifying the root of the problem. The Lord of the vineyard asked this important question: “Who is it that has corrupted my vineyard?” To that the servant answered, “Is it not the loftiness of thy vineyard—have not the branches thereof overcome the roots which are good? And because the branches have overcome the roots thereof, behold they grew faster than the strength of the roots, taking strength unto themselves. Behold, I say, is not this the cause that the trees of thy vineyard have become corrupted?” (Jacob 5:47-48) Ultimately to bear gospel fruit we must humble ourselves before the Lord, and both we and our children have to learn to put Him before our own pride. The only way is to “put off the natural man and [become] a saint through the atonement of Christ” is become “submissive, meek, humble, patient, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19). In other words, the best hope that our children will bear real gospel fruit is if they can learn to be humble and submissive before the Lord—and the same goes for us as parents also. It is our own loftiness that prevents us from becoming who the Lord wants us to become. We and our children must learn to let go of pride and see ourselves in the proper relationship with God: He is our Father and we are His children who must submit to His will. Mormon put it succinctly this way: “None is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart” (Moroni 7:44). And so no matter many times we feel we have already given our all to the vineyard, we continue to labor, encouraging our children and ourselves to understand our true relationship with the Father and the Son and humbly come unto Them. And then we can hope for the abundant fruit in us and them which He promised to all who so do: “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).