Comparing the Word to a Seed

In conference today, Elder Carlos A. Godoy of the Seventy discussed gaining a testimony in small increments, rather than having singular miraculous experiences. He used Alma's council as a basis of his talk.

But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.
Now we will compare the word to a seed. Now, if ye give place that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves -- it must needs be that this is a good seed, ot that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me. (Alma 32:27-28).

Several months ago we read these same verses in Institute, and I remember realizing that we as a church typically read these verses wrong. We did in my class as well.

"Faith is like a little seed. If planted it will grow..." We know the primary song. But while faith could analogously be compared to a seed, it is quite plain that this anaolgy does not. "Now we will compare the word to a seed".

At first I didn't think anything of it, but as I pondered it further I realized that it made a big difference in the church's concept of growing faith or a testimony. The idea is not to experiment on our current beliefs and hope that they expand. The idea is to experiment on this new idea, give it a chance.

The key to learning, the key to strengthening our faith, the key to building our testimony is open-mindedness, a concept we never seem to hear over the pulpit. This is what Alma is trying to explain. Give this new concept a chance. If it is good or true, the fruits of it will enlighten your mind and expand your knowledge. If it is false, it will confuse and contradict.

This is the case for all ideas. Give it a chance and see what kind of fruits it will produce. By their fruits ye shall know them.

I point this out because we typically get stubborn in our mindsets (see my post on stubbornness). We learn a concept, it makes sense to us, and we believe it that way for the rest of our lives. But often these simplistic explanations, while a good foundation, do not open the doors to greater understanding. Thus we become stuck, complacent with our current foundational knowledge.

If we are to build our faith, we must give up the idea that everything we know is exactly how it is. Truth and error are not black and white! I know, it seems like it must be, for what is not true must then be false. But most concepts are not boolean concpets. They can be viewed many different ways, and still be true.

For example, "the sky is blue". This could be considered a true statement, but it's not complete. If we were to paint a picture and select blue as our color for the sky, it wouldn't look real, would it? There are so many shades and hues of the color blue, and the sky's exact color is dependant on the position and distance of the sun, the clouds in the sky, the moisture in the air, among others. Only when we get the hues, tints, etc all perfectly in place will the picture truly and completely depict the sky. And yet, the sky is still blue.

We have puzzle pieces which appear to fit, and yet we can't find any puzzle pieces to fit in the other end. Only when we realize that another piece may fit even better in that spot will it open up new options to fit other pieces.

Remeber, it is just an experiment, and you may draw your own conclusions from the results. But you have to open your mind enough first to experiment.