I have met many people who don’t believe in a Heavenly Father. I have also met some members of our faith who have stopped believing there is hope and joy waiting for them. They have stopped exercising a very important principle found in Alma 32.
Alma teaches the poverty-stricken Zoramites to “experiment” (verse 27) with the word of God or, in other words, to “test drive” the gospel. Then he asks them to compare the word of God to a seed planted in their heart. He says if it is a “good seed” (verse 28) it will grow.
But helping the “good seed” grow takes some effort and faith on our part. Alma also tells us to work on it diligently and with patience (see verse 41). Meaning, you have to be consistent and keep waiting for the positive results.
But what happens if we work REALLY hard to know the truth and we don’t get an answer right away? Do we give up?
I have seen friends and family of mine throw in the towel and say, “This isn’t for me,” or, “This is too hard.” They didn’t have the patience to keep on the covenant path.
They might even make fun of me and say, “You hope for something you can’t prove. There is no physical evidence of your beliefs.”
At this point, the testimony of the gospel stops growing in the hearts of my friends and family.
Alma says, “Now, this is not because the seed was not good, neither is it because the fruit thereof would not be desirable; but it is because your ground is barren, and ye will not nourish the tree, therefore ye cannot have the fruit thereof” (Alma 32:39).
When is comes down to it, I would rather spend my life filled with hope and belief and be wrong in the end than to live a life full of hopelessness, doubt, and cynicism and be right.
There is no happiness in hopelessness. There is no joy in doubt. There is no peace in cynicism.
But I DO believe and I DO have faith in Jesus Christ, who I have never physically seen, but I know He lives! I know this because of the miracles I’ve seen in my life that can’t be explained with evidence or physical proof.
May we all exercise our faith and experiment with this good seed of the word of God and nourish it and watch it grow into a fruitful tree we can all feast on for the eternities.
With love,
—Mark Wiest
Member of the Young Men General Advisory Council