BYU J. Rueben Clark Law School Professor Carl Hernandez came from a family of migrant farm workers in California. In his younger years, he learned how to prune a raisin grape vineyard. In the winter, he pruned the previous year's overgrowth and prepared the vineyard for the new year's harvest. After finishing, the natural sunlight could reach the new vines, and plentiful fruit could grow.
"Likening the vines to ourselves, we must be willing to allow the Lord to prune those dispositions, attributes and cares of the world which prevent us from becoming devoted disciples of Christ," said Hernandez, at the BYU Devotional on Tuesday.
By allowing this pruning process, we can more fully expose our lives to that life-giving light of the Spirit of the Lord so we can produce plentiful fruit for the harvest, he said.
Hernandez focused on eight attributes of Christ: faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity. As he talked about how we can develop each attribute, Hernandez pointed out how they build upon each other and that some level of mastery of each attribute is needed in order to achieve the greatest attribute, charity.
In addition, Hernandez said, a person can only acquire each of these attributes, and in turn become a more devoted disciple of Christ, if he fully understands and applies the principle of hope.
"The continuum begins with faith, and ends with charity, or the pure love of Christ," Hernandez said. "However we must have hope and believe that through Christ we can be more virtuous, knowledgeable, temperate, patient, godly and kind."
Next Week's Forum
The next BYU Forum address will be held on Tuesday, March 24, at 11:05 a.m., in the Marriott Center. David Pershing, President of University of Utah, will deliver the address.
Pershing's remarks will be broadcast live on BYUtv, BYUtv.org, KBYU-TV 11, Classical 89 FM, BYU Radio.
Writer: Jenna Randle
