Sowing seeds - Growing Faith

Have you noticed how easy it is to feel Heavenly Father's love when you're in nature?  We've made this garden at Hulaco to help us draw closer to Heavenly Father.  With the wind on our face and warm sun on our backs, we feel His presence when we are in the garden.

 There is a wonderful science involved in growing vegetables.  Vegetables need fertile soil, water and plenty of sun light to grow. When we understand the science of growing vegetables, we can easily understand the principles behind faith.  In fact, the two go hand in hand.  It takes faith to plant a garden.  Think about it...we take a little seed, maybe the seed will grow,  maybe it won't. The only way to know is to plant it and wait.  We nourish it. We watch and wait and hope it will grow.  We keep ourselves motivated by the vision that someday it will bear fruit.  The same is true of faith.  We need to plant our faith so it will grow.  

One of my favorite garden metaphors is found in the Book of Mormon, in Alma 32:26-43.  Alma teaches us about faith by comparing it to growing seeds.  The Book of Mormon is a wonderful book about Jesus Christ.  I know it to be the Word of God.  How do I know?  Because I tried the experiment in the book.  Alma teaches us how we can go from wondering if the book is the word of God, to believing it is the word of God, to knowing it!

First we use faith to try this experiment.  We begin by simply desiring to know.

So how do we plant this seed of faith?  First we choose a seed.  Our seed could be to know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  Then we find a good spot where the sun shines all day.  Jesus is our light source.  So we will pray for Him to help us know.  We need to plant near a water source.  Again Jesus is the the living water. We will seek His help in understanding what we are reading.  We need to get the ground ready by clearing away all the grass and weeds. We need to cast away our doubts and unbelief.

Our seed needs water and sun light.  We need to keep the weeds away and we wait.  We wait for the seeds to sprout.  We consider how we feel about what we are reading.

Something amazing happens as we try this experiment.  As we read and pray about what we are reading, we will begin to feel love and peace grow in our hearts.  When this happens then we will know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  We simply plant the seed.  

The wonderful thing is that now that we know it is true, we can continue to cultivate our little plant until we can eat of the wonderful fruit that grows.

I tried the experiment and I know The Book of Mormon is the word of God.  Coming to know this book is true is really as simple as planting seeds.  We read the book and as we do, if we "don't cast it out by our unbelief", it will begin to swell within our hearts. We can tell it is true because of the joy and peace and love that grows in our hearts as we read it.  I love the words of the Savior.  I love learning about His life and miracles.  I love the way this book makes me want to be good!  It makes me want to be like my Savior, Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ (LDS.org or Mormon.org)
We have a garden at Hulaco because it helps us draw closer to the our Savior, Jesus Christ.

So plant some seeds in fertile, watered, soil, in the warm sun and understand the gospel of Jesus Christ in a whole new light!