Respecting and Cultivating Plants

"Plants clean the air, consume carbon dioxide, and provide oxygen. They brighten a room, provide inexpensive decorating options, and make all your least favorite chores take half as long to complete. (That last one hasn’t been proven quite yet.)

Amid the daunting uncertainties about carbon footprints, energy needs, pollution, and limited natural resources, we can sometimes feel overwhelmed or powerless. But there’s at least one small step just about anybody can take: caring for a houseplant. The world can always use one more plant."

"Let the people be holy, and the earth under their feet will be holy. Let the people be holy, and filled with the Spirit of God, and every animal and creeping thing will be filled with peace; the soil of the earth will bring forth in its strength, and the fruits thereof will be meat for man. The more purity that exists, the less is the strife; the more kind we are to our animals, the more will peace increase, and the savage nature of the brute creation vanish away. If the people will not serve the Devil another moment whilst they live, if this congregation is possessed of that spirit and resolution, here in this house is the Millennium. Let the inhabitants of this city be possessed of that spirit, let the people of the territory be possessed of that spirit, and here is the Millennium. Let the whole people . . . be possessed of that spirit and here is the Millennium, and so will it spread over all the world."

"[President Young said that] God has given us a commandment that we should not waste meat, nor take life unless it is needful, but he can see a disposition in this camp to slaughter everything before them"

"The designs of God, on the other hand, have been to promote the universal good of the universal world; to establish peace and good will among men; to promote the principles of eternal truth; to bring about a state of things that shall unite man to his fellow man; cause the world to 'beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks,' make the nations of the earth dwell in peace, and to bring about the millennial glory, when 'the earth shall yield its increase, resume its paradisean glory, and become as the garden of the Lord.'"

"Trees are more precious than gold . . . I consider the life of a tree so sacred that I am reluctant to destroy it, even when the tree is no longer useful where it is, and even when it is in the way of a better improvement . . . I would like to see our children taught to respect tree life as they do bird life and animal life and human life. All are parts of the great creation of our Father . . . and none of the workmanship of His hands should we presume to tamper with, wreck or destroy, except as our needs may justify or our intelligence suggest as necessary for the welfare of those concerned."

And it came to pass that after I, the Lord God, had driven them out, that Adam began to till the earth, and to have dominion over all the beasts of the field, and to eat his bread by the sweat of his brow

"Specifically, the one way man can leave his mark on the whole face of nature without damage is to plant, and President Young ceaselessly counseled his people to do as Adam was commanded to do in Eden—when he dressed and tended the garden:"

"Institutions must have their art forms, their symbolic representations, and if the Heavenward aspirations of medieval Christianity found their expression in cathedrals and spires, the more mundane aspirations of the Latter-day Saints may just as readily be discovered in the widespread plantings of Mormon trees. They look Heavenward, but their roots are in the earth. The Mormon looked toward Heaven, but his Heaven was a Heaven on earth and he would inherit bliss in the flesh."

"What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another."

"He that plants trees loves others beside himself."

“Good farmers, who take seriously their duties as stewards of Creation and of their land's inheritors, contribute to the welfare of society in more ways than society usually acknowledges, or even knows. These farmers produce valuable goods, of course; but they also conserve soil, they conserve water, they conserve wildlife, they conserve open space, they conserve scenery.”

The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.

Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.

And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of they people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with they oliveyard.

When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man’s life) to employ them in the siege:

And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

All grain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the staff of life, not only for man but for the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and all wild animals that run or creep on the earth.

Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving.

And I did cause that the men should till the ground, and raise all manner of grain and all manner of fruit of every kind.

And we began to till the ground, yea, even with all manner of seeds, with seeds of corn, and of wheat, and of barley, and with neas, and with sheum, and with seeds of all manner of fruits; and we did begin to multiply and prosper in the land.

And king Mosiah did cause his people that they should till the earth. And he also, himself, did till the earth, that thereby he might not become burdensome to his people, that he might do according to that which his father had done in all things. And there was no contention among all his people for the space of three years.

They did raise grain in abundance, both in the north and in the south; and they did flourish exceedingly, both in the north and in the south. And they did multiply and wax exceedingly strong in the land. And they did raise many flocks and herds, yea, many fatlings.

Having all manner of fruit, and of grain, and of silks, and of fine linen, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious things;

And it came to pass that they went forth upon the face of the land, and began to till the earth.

Go to and gather together thy flocks, both male and female, of every kind; and also of the seed of the earth of every kind; and thy families; and also Jared thy brother and his family; and also thy friends and their families, and the friends of Jared and their families.

And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land—but not so much so with fevers, because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases, to which men were subject by the nature of the climate.

Now behold, my son, I will explain this thing unto thee. For behold, after the Lord God sent our first parents forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground, from whence they were taken—yea, he drew out the man, and he placed at the east end of the garden of Eden, cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the tree of life—

But behold, saith the Lord of Hosts: I will show unto the children of men that it is yet a very little while and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field; and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest.

And the Lord was with us; and we did prosper exceedingly; for we did sow seed, and we did reap again in abundance. And we began to raise flocks, and herds, and animals of every kind.

And after Adam and Eve had partaken of the forbidden fruit they were driven out of the garden of Eden, to till the earth.