Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 32–35 – Autumn Dickson

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Nourish Belief

by Autumn Dickson

This week, we find the well-known sermon taught by Alma about planting a seed of faith and nourishing the tree. Alma is approached by the poorer class of people who have been cast out of the synagogues because of their coarse clothing. Alma then begins to preach unto them, teaching them about worship and belief. Here is the beginning of the analogy he teaches to the people.

Alma 32:28 Now, we will compare the word unto 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, or 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.

When you nurture a seed of belief, it grows within you, whatever it is that you choose to nurture. I believe that many of us read this sermon and apply it to our own faith, but I’m not sure how many of us have recognized the implications for belief in general. A sentiment I often hear is that it’s arrogant to believe you have the real truth when so many others believe the same thing about their own faith.

One of the principles I pull from this verse is that what you nurture grows. My husband often talks about how most people don’t know whether what they believe is true. They believe, but they don’t know. He talks about how any time you take time to nourish belief, that’s where you’ll continue to build and find evidence of your beliefs. You find what you look for. If you invest and nurture belief in pretty much any positive belief system, you’re going to find “evidence” for what you believe.

This has a million implications.

All truth will find a tree

One of the implications is the fact that all truth produces good fruit, not just truth that is directly taught by those within the restored gospel.

We believe we have found the truth in Jesus Christ. However, people who belong to the Islamic faith also believe they have found the truth. They have nurtured their belief and found good-tasting fruit in those beliefs.

When we look at it from the perspective of the seed analogy, it makes complete sense. Whatever bit of truth you’ve found, you’re going to find good-tasting fruit. There was a time on my mission where we knocked on the door of a Muslim family. They invited us in, fed us, and they even took The Book of Mormon. They weren’t interested in the gospel, but they were so kind. They asked if we had any rules about the book, whether it should be kept off the ground or anything like that because they wanted to respect something that was sacred to us.

If they treated most of the things in their lives the way they treated us, of course they were going to find good-tasting fruit. If you’re respectful to others, you find fulfilling relationships and that feels good. That’s just how things work. And as these people practiced these good principles, they were going to find the same blessings. In my mind, they were practicing Christlike principles even if they didn’t yet know Christ, and He still rewarded them and blessed them for that.

Because they were living their lives in a good manner, they were going to find good fruit. They were going to find “evidence” that their beliefs were producing something, and so they were going to continue to invest in those beliefs.

This may feel extremely confusing for some. How are we supposed to find the truth, if any bit of truth that gets nurtured grows into good-tasting fruit? If everyone is tasting good fruit within their own religions, how are we supposed to differentiate who has the truth? This is a legitimate concern. It would make things a bit more confusing if you’re trying to look for the truth. However, look at the Lord’s alternative.

What if He only helped the tree grow when it was a perfect seed? What if He only sent good fruit when we had every bit of truth rather than just a portion of it?

This would be disastrous for a million reasons. I grew up in the church, and my seed (my understanding of the truth) still isn’t perfect. What if He had never let any of the tree grow because my seed wasn’t perfect? What if I had never tasted anything good because my seed wasn’t perfect? The consequences would be disastrous because nobody would ever take the time to nourish anything. If I had never had good experiences with the gospel, I wouldn’t have nurtured anything. I would only have a dormant seed.

In another less-extreme, alternative plan from the Lord…what if He only let your tree grow within the restored gospel?

Surely, this would help people recognize the truth when they found it more easily. No one would get confused about other religions if their religions weren’t producing fruit. However, would anyone seek religion at all? Can you imagine if no one got good fruit unless they had been taught the restored gospel? Once again, the results would be disastrous. The world would be a terrible place filled with people who had never tasted good fruit and probably wouldn’t be willing to try it even if it was offered to them because life would suck.

No, the Lord chose to send good fruit to anyone who was nurturing any bit of truth. It was the only legitimate way to bring as much good into the world as possible. It gave His restored church the best chance to flourish, and it would give people the best chance to find it in comparison to never receiving good fruit at all. Sure, it sometimes makes things confusing as people find good fruit and “evidence” in all sorts of different churches, but the alternative option for the Lord was worse.

And that’s actually another reason I love our beliefs so much. The Lord picked the best option for this fallen world (namely sending good fruit to anyone who nurtured any goodness). This had some tricky consequences because of our fallen world; namely, it made it a little more confusing to find the truth when everyone found evidence within their own good beliefs. However, we believe in the Plan of Salvation. We believe in a perfect God who allows all of His children to truly hear and accept the gospel. Everyone will get a real chance. We don’t have to be scared of the tricky consequences because we believe in a perfectly fair God who sent His Son to perform the atonement and make sure we all really had a chance to go home.

Planting weeds

There is another implication to the idea that whatever we nurture, grows. This isn’t just true for good truth and good fruit. Nourishing the negative will bring in bad fruit. If you nurture weeds, they grow. Eventually, you don’t even have to nurture them anymore, they stick around all on their own. And weeds are tricky, tricky little things.

What have you been nurturing lately? What resources have you been bringing into your life and do you feel more faith or discontent when you’re done utilizing those resources?

Whatever you feed, grows.

There was a time in my life where I was consuming far more social media than spending time in the actual scriptures. This doesn’t have to necessarily be a bad thing; social media doesn’t have to be evil. However, I found that I was listening to lots of voices. Some of those voices even came in the form of members of the church, but they were sowing discontent.

I took a step back from some of the accounts I was following and made a goal to spend more time simply reading The Book of Mormon with no outside commentary. The faith crisis I had been feeding went away rather quickly, and I found that despite my questions and concerns, I felt different. I felt more compassion towards the imperfections. I felt more faith towards a more perfect future. I fed my hope.

What you feed, grows.

Some may argue with me that I was unwise to turn a blind eye towards issues, and that’s fine. I don’t feel blind; I just feel more faith. There are some who believe we have a duty to churn up the issues and make our voices known about it. That’s fine too. You can choose to feed that.

But my personal experience is this. I wasn’t happy listening to the discontent. It wasn’t right for me. There are times when I listen and explore and turn to the Lord with concerns (and that’s important and can lead us to more truth), but there are also times when that discontent grows out of balance. I’m happier seeking out faith over bitterness and discontent. I’m happier when I feed my faith sufficiently. I feel close to God, and my testimony that He’s there seems to grow stronger. I know we find evidence of what we’re nurturing, but I like what I’ve built and worked towards. I like what I’ve nurtured, and I like the fruit I’ve found. I believe it’s a happy way to live.

So picture your future. What do you want your life to look like? What fruit do you want to be experiencing? Do you want to feel closer to God? Are the resources you’re using nurturing that belief in Him?

By their fruits, ye shall know them.

I believe in my Heavenly Father. I believe there’s a reason we’re counseled to seek out voices of faith, and I have found more faith and more happiness as I’ve listened to that counsel. I have found that I want to nurture what I’ve been finding even more. I believe in a loving Lord who provides fruit to help us understand what we want to nurture, and I’m grateful He’s chosen to give good fruit for any goodness we choose to follow. It isn’t a perfect system, but it’s the best plan He could have chosen for our fallen world, and I believe that He sent His Son to make up for the gaps in that imperfect system. I’m grateful for Them and the peace I’ve received investing in Them.

Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.

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