A Land of Milk and Honey

A Land of Milk and Honey

I’ve lived in a land of milk and honey;

Where it rains, it mists, and is rarely completely sunny.

It’s never too hot.  It hardly ever freezes;

And children play in ocean breezes.

The deer and elk roamed through our yard,

And finding green was never hard.

The trees grow big; the grass gets long,

And birds in the trees sing beautiful songs.

In this land where water is abundant;

Sometimes green seems a bit redundant.

I have seen ivy strangle a giant tree;

And berries cover a home when allowed to grow free.

I’ve lived in a wilderness, hot and dry;

And clouds hang sparsely in the sky.

In winter the air gets cold and freezes

And people are prone to a number of diseases.

Seeds are planted with loving care,

And irrigation ditches take water there.

The work is hard, one toils long…

But the air is filled with a moving song.

Once in a while an oasis is found,

And it becomes a sacred ground;

Where family and friends often gather around,

And together join in a heavenly sound.

On earth there’s a spiritual land of milk and honey,

And one can gain treasures without any money.

Living prophets grace this place,

And they are as familiar to me as my very own face.

Because there is goodness all around,

Ingratitude is often found.

In this land of so much truth,

We must carefully teach our youth

How to be obedient to God’s laws,

So they won’t be strangled by Satan’s claws.

Sometimes our spirits are called to live

In a desert wilderness where we feel we have nothing to give;

And burdens are hard, and we feel alone,

And it is difficult to see the path that leads towards home.

We must sink our roots of faith deep;

And all of our covenants we must keep.

In a desert of challenges, pain, and despair,

There is often a hidden oasis there.

It is usually as close as a fervent prayer,

and meeting with family and friends in a chapel somewhere.

If at the time we can’t attend,

Our thoughts toward the temple we can send.

And if for Living water we will seek,

Our trust in the Lord will bring us peace.

So home to the Land of milk and honey will I go? ---Yes!

But I will miss my wilderness.

For that is where I came to stretch and grow

And of my Savior I came to know.

I have been blessed to endure the pain;

And I have come to love the rain.