🌾 Becoming Wholesome Grain

Wheat and the church have been on my mind this past year as I watch false teachings spread and faithful people falter. To make sense of what I’m seeing, I want to walk through the biblical process of sowing → harvest → threshing → winnowing and show how each stage maps to conversion, testing, and purification in our day.

Sowing
AI rendition of the parable of the sower
When seed is sown, the farmer’s hope is simple: life will grow. In spiritual terms, sowing is the proclamation of truth and the work of discipleship. New converts and renewed hearts are the visible fruit of faithful teaching and prayer.  In some souls the word takes hold and in others it withers.  1, 2

Tares
Wheat on the left and Tares on the right
The Scriptures warn that tares will grow alongside wheat. Tares look like wheat at first, but their roots and fruit differ.  We hear about the tares sown by the enemy amongst the fields.  These remain until the harvest when the value of the fruit is clear and it is both easy to tell the difference between wheat and tare as well as safer to gather the wheat without harming it.  3

Harvest & Threshing
"The Threshing Floor" painting by Ralph Hedley
The wheat harvested is like the convert being baptized.  Once harvested into the church, wheat is first threshed, a method of trodding or beating upon the sheaves to separate the grains from their environment, the stalks.  So the converted are brought into the church and separated from previous lifestyles or cultures, becoming saints.  4, 5
Winnowing
"Winnowing Grain" painting by Eastman Johnson
Finally, the wheat is winnowed.  This involves tossing the grains up into a breeze which blows the chaff away, further purifying the harvest for its intended purpose.  The saints too are being tossed around or unsettled by the Lord as he exposes them to the winds of the adversary.  As those winds blow through, only the heavy grains, rich in the gospel, fall back down in their proper place.  The unsettling experience leaves the remainder cleaner and more wholesome, while those who are caught by the winds of the world are removed. 6, 7

How are the saints to endure the winds?  
Endurance through threshing and winnowing is not passive. It requires spiritual practices and community supports that help grain remain whole.

- Daily root care: regular Scripture reading and prayer keep roots deep.  
- Accountability: trusted brothers and sisters help identify tares and encourage perseverance.  
- Service: practical obedience tests and strengthens faith.  
- Prayerful posture: ask for humility to accept correction and courage to repent.  

President Joseph Fielding Smith, said in Sept 1953, "search the scriptures that you may not be deceived by false theories and practices and doctrines so prevalent in the world today." 

Elder Marvin J. Ashton also said in October 1990 conference, "We must, if we will have happiness, follow the straight and prescribed paths. “I will give you a pattern in all things” is one of the Lord’s greatest gifts and promises. Today it comes from him and his prophets. Keeping one’s mind occupied with constructive, useful things on a constant basis prevents Satan from having success in idle minds. Good music, art, literature, recreation, and other worthy pastimes can help establish proper patterns in one’s mind and conduct. Happiness is a by-product of righteous living and sharing within the framework of lofty patterns. Actions of the moment may be fun, but true happiness depends upon how you feel after the involvement is over."

And of particular importance in today's world, in the October 1995 conference, President Hinckley introduced the family proclamation with these important words: “With so much of sophistry that is passed off as truth, with so much of deception concerning standards and values, with so much of allurement and enticement to take on the slow stain of the world, we have felt to warn and forewarn … of standards, doctrines, and practices relative to the family which the prophets, seers, and revelators of this church have repeatedly stated throughout its history.”

AI depiction of Hymn "The Iron Rod"

I pray we may be found wholesome grain and pure.

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