How To Receive Blessings: 101

Occasionally, people will ask me how to receive the blessings of the Lord, and how we know about the blessings that are there. I answered as plain and simple as I could, hoping that it would answer their questions. Well, in a recent Zone Conference we had, Sister Gardner, our Mission President's wife, told us a story/poem that will hopefully get the message through clearer. It goes something like this:


Said the little red rooster,
"My but things are tough.
Seems that the worms are scarcer,
cannot find enough.
What's become of all those fat ones
is a mystery to me.
There were thousands through that rainy spell,
but now where can they be?"

Then the old black hen who heard him
didn't grumble and complain.
She'd gone through lots of dry spells,
and lived through floods of rain;
So she flew up on the grindstone
and gave her claws a whet as she said,
"I've never seen the time
there weren't worms to get!"

She picked a new and undug spot;
the earth was hard and firm.
The little red rooster jeered, "New ground--
that's no place to find a worm."
The old black hen just spread her feet,
she dug both fast and free,
"I must go to the worms," she said,
"The worms won't come to me."

The rooster vainly spent his day,
through habit, by the ways,
where fat worms had passed in squads
back in the rainy days.
When nightfall found him supperless,
he growled in accents rough,
"I'm hungry as a fowl can be;
conditions sure are tough."

He turned to the old black hen and said,
"It's worse with you;
for you're not only hungry,
but must be tired, too.
I rested while I watched for worms,
so I feel fairly pert,
but how are you, without worms too,
and after all that work?"

The old black hen hopped up to her perch
and dropped her eyes to sleep,
and murmured in a drowsy tone,
"Young man, bear this and weep.
I'm full of worms and happy,
for I've eaten like a pig.
The worms were there as always,
but boy, I had to dig!"

The blessing of the old black hen actually trying to find the worms, was that she found what she was looking for, but only after she did the work. She received the blessings when she was willing to dig in her claws and go find them. That's what we have to do. We can't just sit back and hopefully catch a worm (or blessing) as it shows up. If we really want the Lord to bless us, we have to be willing to go out and snatch those blessing for ourselves. Some are easier to receive than others, but with diligence, you can get those individual, God-sent blessings by: reading scriptures, going to church, praying several times daily, obeying the commandments, paying tithing, having a focused mind on the good things in life, fasting, getting baptized, enduring through hard trials, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, having faith, repenting, etc. As you do these things, and do them all the time, you will start to see the Lord blessing you. You will literally feel Him in your life and feel as though everything was alright. That is how you receive the approval of the Lord, and receive of the fullness of His blessings He has in store for us.