From the book “Direct Messages”, Jeffrey R. Holland wrote:
Wherever I go—and wherever you are—we find disappointments. We find people who’ve had heartache. We see things that are broken in our life. It’s a little bit like having your great-grandmother’s precious piece of china saved on the trip over from England two centuries ago. And suddenly you have an accident in the home and a little piece of china is broken. Almost, it would appear to be irreparable. You couldn’t get it back. Well, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you get it back. And things are broken regularly.
It takes broken clouds to nourish the earth. It takes broken earth to grow grain. It takes broken grain to make bread, and it takes broken bread to feed us. These are the cycles of life. Like that parable that the Savior taught where he said, “Unless a man cast away the kernel of corn” — corn being the translation for wheat– unless we cast it away in the spring, he won’t have that harvest in the fall [see John 12:24]. And that’s the way it is with us. We have to manage and live with it. And when there’s a broken dream or a broken marriage, broken unity with children in the family? Well, there’s an answer to that. We can survive that. It’s going to grow if we live the gospel. Plant that seed. It’s going to come back to us at harvest time, rich and abundant, and it will be better than it was before.
One of the reasons that it works is because we offer as sacrifice that’s also broken, and ours is a broken heart and a contrite spirit. If we’ll be that humble, if we can be more like a child, if we can be more receptive to the Spirit of the Lord, we’re going to be healed too. We’re going to be put back together. Marriages will and families will, and financial challenges will. They’ll all be improved finally, to perfection. And that’s what the gospel of Jesus Christ offers. Through the Savior’s Atonement, through His sacrifice for us, our sacrifices, little as they are, our sacrifices then take on real meaning, and a broken heart is given back to us. And we have the stature and the dignity and the faith and the purpose of someone who’s better than they knew they were, better than they thought things could be. And all that comes from a little parable about throwing away a little kernel of corn. And we reap the benefit of a saving, loving atoning Jesus Christ, who accepts our gift and gives back. And we are renewed. We’re born again. We’re whole and complete and powerful as long as we live that gospel principle that brought us there. ~~~ Jeffrey R. Holland (deceased) . . . from the book “Direct Messages”, “Words from God’s Prophets to You” p. 143-45
