A young boy decided he wanted to show his mother that he loved her, so he asked his dad for some money to buy her some candy. Knowing that his wife’s favorite treat was a Belgian chocolate bar and therefore cost more than a Milky Way, Dad gave his son several dollars to be sure to cover the purchase. They walked down to the grocery store, where the boy insisted on doing this himself while Dad waited outside. So Dad told him the name of Mom’s chocolate bar and where to find it.
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A prodigious young entrepreneur, though from affluent circumstances, set out on his own and created a company from scratch. This startup went from modest beginnings to a multibillion-dollar venture within a matter of a few years. Not content to use his quickly growing means for his own benefit, he invested in his employees’ development, made community-building partnerships, and donated cash to good causes. In particular, he became interested in and then driven to end homelessness in the city where he lived and his company’s headquarters were located.
At the height of his success, he sold his company and retired to a beautiful mansion in an upscale neighborhood situated on the hills overlooking the city.
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What is more natural than water flowing downhill? Whether it falls from the sky, bubbles up to the surface in springs, or comes from snowmelt, water thereafter always follows the path of least resistance to find the lowest point it can. Further, by nature, the faster water flows, the more it picks up dirt from its bed and carries it along, becoming murky and unable to reflect much light.
Of course, water flowing uphill is against its nature, but that’s part of the point of the Parable of the Pure Stream. We might even say the faster we go through life, the more we hurtle forward without worrying about what direction we’re taking, the more baggage, problems, and even sins we can pick up along the way. And it can follow that if swiftly flowing water becomes clouded by particles, then water forced to move slowly because it’s flowing against gravity is more likely to remain clear.
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The sunlight brightened and faded as clouds moved across the sky, driven by a March wind. A young girl walked with her grandmother down the sidewalk on a long, curving street. She and her family had recently moved even farther away from her grandparents than they had lived before, and it had been a long time since she had last visited. Walking their neighborhood was like a new adventure.
They passed along a high, wrought-iron fence at the foot of a wide hill whose brow stood two hundred yards away. A path led from a gate up to the top, but the girl frowned. The path appeared to lead to nothing. “Why does the path go up there, Grandma?” she asked. “Is something up there?”
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Every person on Earth has a “special occasion” ahead, one that our Heavenly Parents wish us to be ready for. Much like a child who wants to play until then, we find ourselves having run out into the world and dirtied our hands, stained our clothes, and messed up our hair. In other words, we’ve picked up some sins, faults, and bad habits that make us less than suitable company for Deity and angels. Nor will we feel comfortable at the table if everyone else there is prepared and we aren’t.
To some extent, we may have engaged in some of these behaviors while not entirely understanding the consequences that would face us down the road. But often there is some sort of warning called out, whether it was from a parent, friend, mentor, our conscience, or the Holy Ghost.
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The Weekly Parable 