Nourish the Word

The children at Church sing these words of a familiar Primary song: “Faith is like a little seed: If planted, it will grow. Faith is a swelling within my heart. When I do right, I know.” Surely it makes sense to talk and sing about growing our faith, for we especially hope that the faith of our children will grow as they do such that they come to know the Lord and trust in Him more each year. But looking at the passage that inspired this song, and which is referenced in the footnotes to it, faith is in fact not compared directly to a seed. These are the words that Alma taught to the Zoramites, “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.” What Alma encouraged them to plant was the word, meaning the word of God. It is primarily by planting the word in our hearts—reading and studying and pondering and listening to the words of the Lord through ancient and modern prophets—that faith develops in our hearts. That above verse does not mention faith, but Alma followed it with these words, “Now behold, would not this increase your faith?” (Alma 32:27-28) Indeed, planting the word of God in our hearts will grow our faith more than anything else. Paul put it this way: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

                Towards the end of this chapter Alma encouraged the Zoramites and us with these words: “And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life. But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life. And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof” (Alma 32:40-42). Typically we would talk about nourishing our faith, but in this passages the prophet repeated three times the idea that we need to nourish the word. But how do we nourish the word of God? I believe we do this by patiently and consistently studying and reading and learning from the scriptures and words of the prophets. We don’t give up when they are hard to understand or when it is difficult to live by the teachings we find therein. We don’t stop trying when we have already read them once or even when we have spent decades studying them. And we don’t abandon our efforts to plant the word in the hearts of our children even when family scripture study is filled with more commotion than communion. Alma’s invitation to us is to nourish the word like we would carefully nourish a plant: day in and day out we give it the opportunity to blossom through patient and persistent efforts. He summarized his message to us this way, “And now, my brethren, I desire that ye shall plant this word in your hearts, and as it beginneth to swell even so nourish it by your faith. And behold, it will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life” (Alma 33:23). As we plant the word, nourishing it with faith by giving time to the scriptures every day, the word will become in us like a tree springing with everlasting life.