Emmaline felt like a hole had been opened up in her chest when her grandmother passed away. Grandma had been living with Emmaline and Mom, taking care of things while Mom was working. Having the three of them in their tiny apartment made it hard for any of them to have space to herself. But as Emmaline spent more and more time with Grandma, she came to love having her around.
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Dusk settled over the valley, the worn mountains to the west silhouetted against the remnants of fading sunlight. At this time of year, with the days shortening, Dad got home from work after dark.
“Joe, honey,” said Joe’s mom over her shoulder as she finished washing some dishes, “please go turn the porch light on.”
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Miriam, the manager of a small sales team, attended a training meeting about the development of the organization’s employees using a new program. The instructor taught the managers how to help each professional identify strengths and set goals to improve. Miriam became excited about how her team could increase their performance if she worked with each member on furthering their skills.
However, as Miriam held one-on-one meetings with her team members and explained the concept, she met with very different reactions.
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I was thinking recently about career changes—I underwent one about eight years ago—and how they can require you to almost start from scratch. You may go from being an expert in one field to being a newbie in another.
This line of thinking reminded me of a parable told by Hugh B. Brown, a counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, about 50 years ago. He related a personal experience from his days as the owner of a run-down farm in Canada:
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This day on an apartment building construction site began like any other. Farrell the foreman and the workers arrived early to get as much work done as possible before the heat of the midsummer day pressed down on them. The project was still in its early stages; the crew used heavy machinery to dig the foundation and move tons of dirt to another location on the property where it could be used to fill in the ground behind a retaining wall. The ground around the excavation sloped upward such that the plans called for the west side of the basement to have doors and windows opening to the ground, but for the main floor on the east end to also open to ground level.
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The Weekly Parable 