The Queen of Spades

That doesn’t sound romantic or royal at all. A spade is a garden tool. How could that apply to being a Queen? Surely a Queen would not have to get dirt under her fingernails?!

Gardens have so many different spiritual analogies in the scriptures. A garden is considered a beautiful place to be, in or out of the scriptures. A garden is a plot of land used for the cultivation of flowers, vegetables, herbs, or fruit. To cultivate is to prepare the soil for growing, or to promote or improve the growth of (a plant, crop, etc.) by labor and attention. How useful is a spade in the garden? It performs with ease what the hands alone could not do. Spade work is defined as arduous preparatory work. Arduous is hard to accomplish, difficult and strenuous. To prepare is to make ready, time spent, or serving to prepare. This could surely be applied to our life here on earth. It is definitely arduous at times. How about difficult and strenuous. That sounds like motherhood for sure. Motherhood is definitely the grounds for service and preparatory work as we prepare our children to go out into the world.

Now think of Christ. He is known as the Master Gardener. He created the earth and everything that is on the earth. Consider all the beauty and variety of the many flowers and plants and vegetables and fruits his hands created for this world, for us to enjoy!














“Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart.” (Doctrine & Covenants 59:18)

As Mothers, and as Queens in the making, we are the spade--the instrument in the Lord’s skilled hands--in nurturing and cultivating and preparing our families, especially our children, to grow. We help promote their growth by our labor and attention. We are hopefully planting those seeds of the gospel and of the testimony of Jesus Christ in their hearts and then nurturing it carefully as they grow. Plants are living, growing and beautiful things. They need constant care and nourishment. Our children are just like a garden that needs constant care and nourishment. How beautiful they blossom in the eyes of their mother! What wonderful fruit they bear as they grow up unto the Lord.

Like a spade is formed to perform it’s tasks, we too are formed by the Lord to perform our tasks that He has given us. As instruments in the Lord’s hands, women are the spades of service. Women sew seeds of love & compassion & service everywhere they go. So often, women do not think they are doing enough…but God knows. “God [will not] forget your work & labor of love..” (Hebrews 6:10) The very lack of recognition makes one’s sacrifice pure before the Lord, thus it becomes more perfecting. Though it may not appear so at the surface, the more we give, the more our self-worth is enlarged.

It would be important to note that all spades are not made the same. We are much the same and yet different. To be most effective we should not compare our makings or accomplishment to those of other women. Always remember “the master hand” who holds the spade, and what you can accomplish in His hands. Always remember that alone you can do nothing. With Him you can do everything. He has created us uniquely to fulfill a unique and wise purpose in our Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation for all of us. He has given each of us our own little corner of His Garden, to tend and nurture as only we are prepared by Him to do.

Mother Teresa left us with this wonderful thought; “I always say I am a little pencil in the hands of God. He does the thinking. He does the writing. He does everything--and it’s really hard---sometimes it’s a broken pencil. He has to sharpen it a little more. But be a little instrument in His hands so that He can use you anytime, anywhere…we have only to say yes to Him.”

May I take the liberty of changing the words around--
I am a Queen of Spade in the hands of God, the Master Gardener. He does the planning and the planting. He does everything---and it’s really hard---because I am only a Queen-in-the-making spade, and sometimes I’m a little dull for the job he needs done. But He has faith in my ability to help with His most important work of cultivating and preparing the soil for those most precious plants that He will plant in my tiny spot of garden in this great big world. But each garden spot is so precious to the Lord. There He plants His precious sons and daughters, counting on me to help to promote & improve their growth by the labor and attention I help to give them…through careful & compassionate cultivation.















President Gordon B. Hinckley was a prophet who understood planting and gardening. In his book, “One Bright Shining Hope” which is full of messages to the women of the church, he uses the word “cultivate” in seven quotes out of that book. Here is a summary of his use of the word:
“Of all the creations of the Almighty, there is none more beautiful…than a lovely daughter of God…who cultivates her mind and constantly enlarges the horizon of her understanding…” (page 2)
“Our individual testimonies…are the basis of our faith…we must cultivate them…” (page 8)
“In the pioneering days of this church…many a wife and mother planted a few flowers and a few fruit trees to add beauty and taste…there are so many things that you can do. Beauty is a thing divine. The cultivation of it becomes an expression of the divine nature within you.” (page 39)
“Cultivate an attitude of happiness. Cultivate a spirit of optimism…” (page 49)
“Cultivate the art of being kind, of being thoughtful, of being helpful…” (page 52)
“Cultivate in your hearts a testimony and a love for God your Eternal Father.” (page 90)
“Speak affirmatively and cultivate an attitude of confidence…” (page 148)

So, in addition to the “cultivating” we do in reguards to motherhood and raising children, there is so much more to the Queen of Spades than just motherhood. Women have a tendancy to beautify everything around them. Our homes can be beautiful by the special touches that we give them. Our yards and porches can be adorned with colorful plants and flowers. Our homes may not be big or expensive or richly furnished, but they can be clean and inviting of the spirit of the Lord.
The food we prepare and the table we set can set the mood for family memories and conversation and love and the spirit. (not that everything is going to go perfectly for every meal, but it’s important to keep trying)
We can keep our personal grooming and attire clean and attractive and wholesome in the manner that is pleasing to the Lord. Not to attract attention in a worldly way, but in a way that will allow the spirit to dwell with us that others will notice something different about us. Something clean and pure and full of light.
We can smile and be kind to those we come in contact with. We can cultivate our own friendship garden by opening our arms to all who are in need of a friend.
We can just try to do the best we can in each area that the Lord has allotted us with the talents and gifts He has given us to use.

















Father, where shall I work today?
And my love flowed warm and free.
Then He pointed out a tiny spot
And said, “Tend that for me.”
I answered quickly, “Oh no; not that!
Why, no one would ever see,
No matter how well my work was done;
Not that little place for me.”
And the word He spoke, it was not stern;
He answered me tenderly:
“Ah, little one, search that heart of thine.
Art thou working for them or for me?
Nazareth was a little place,
And so was Galilee.”
--Meade McGuire

I love what Sister Marjorie Hinckley said, and I have no idea where I got this from. I cut it out and pasted it into a notebook. She really sums up the Queen of Spades for me when she said this:
“I don’t want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coifed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenck’s lawn.
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor’s children.
I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone’s garden.
I want to be there with children’s sticky kisses on my cheeks and tears of a friend on my shoulder.
I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.”
And her husband President Hinckley said, “Unless we loose ourselves in the service of others our lives are largely lived to no real purpose.”

Be a Queen of Spades….