My Spiritual Feast – Matthew 13

I have found that it's super easy to fall out of the habit of reading your scriptures. I haven't done it a lot lately and I've needed to get better. Well I started reading again today and it always amazes me how much I get out of reading. I'm always learning something new. It wasn't necessarily that way before my mission. I think the difference is that I'm looking to learn more than I was before. My mind is more open and I am willing to learn. It's amazing how much of a difference that can make.

This morning I read Matthew 13. In this chapter, Jesus teaches in parables. As he is teaching the parable of the sower, he says something that hit me differently than it has in the past and I feel the need to share it with you. Jesus is explaining the different types of ground where the seeds have fallen and comparing them to us. In verse 23 it says, "But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth (TG Teachable) the word, and understandeth [and endureth (JST)]; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." As I read this and pondered it, I realized that there are three things that must happen for us to have strong enough root to endure the temptations and trials of this world. When we are taught the gospel, to make our testimonies become strong enough to rely on, there are 3 steps we must go through:

1. HEAR - We must be willing to hear. Like I had said earlier, I wasn't getting as much out of the scriptures before my mission because I wasn't as open as I am now. We must be willing to listen and willing to get something out of it. "Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind..." (D&C 64:34)
2. UNDERSTAND - We must search ponder and pray about the subject. We must put forth effort so that we may understand those certain principles. We can just expect to listen to a principle and automatically expect to have a strong testimony of it. It doesn't always work out that way. At the end of The Book of Mormon, Moroni even exhorts us to do this, "I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts....ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true.....And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."
3. ENDURE - When I think of enduring, I think of application. We must apply what we have heard and come to understand. I think of Nephi when he said "...I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them..." We need to have that. We must say to ourselves, I go, I do, because I know. It is our testimonies that can help us have that. 

As we follow this cycle, I know that our testimonies will run deep. Our testimonies will be strong enough to rely on when those trials come along. We will be able to have the strength and knowledge we need to have that eternal perspective. Nothing will be able to sway us.