Nourish the Word

Alma’s invitation to the Zoramites in Alma 32 was to plant the seed, meaning the word of God, in their hearts. One of his messages was that as we do so we must give nourishment to that seed. In fact, a form of the word nourish appears eight times in the final seven verses. As the tree begins to grow—meaning that the seed of the word of God takes root within us—we must “nourish it with great care.” He promised, “If ye nourish it with much care it will get root, and grow up, and bring forth fruit.” Alma also warned, “But if ye neglect the tree, and take no thought for its nourishment, behold it will not get any root.” If we find that the seed was not good, it may simply be because of our lack of caring for it: “But it is because your ground is barren, and ye will not nourish the tree, therefore ye cannot have the fruit thereof…. 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.” Only as we provide nourishment to the tree can it grow and can we partake of the fruit of the tree of life. He promised, “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.” We must have the “diligence” and “faith” and “patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root” in us.

               There are of course many ways that we might apply this concept of nourishing the tree. Certainly we need to “nourish” our testimonies of the gospel. We also need to “nourish” those whom we are called to teach, especially our children. We need to “nourish” our relationship with God as we diligently come unto Him in prayer. But none of these is what he was referring to exactly—Alma was specifically inviting us to “nourish the word,” and so I interpret that as meaning the time we spend studying the scriptures. We must nourish our efforts to read and understand and ponder the words of the Lord. We should not think we can just read for a few minutes and then have some great revelation; rather, we must have diligence and faith and great patience as we spend time trying to plant the word in our hearts. Day in and day out, we study and search and seek to apply the word of God, and if we do so “with much care,” then the seed will begin to grow and we will come to understand and feel that the words of the scriptures are true. Then the word of God will “enlarge [our] soul” and “enlighten [our] understanding” and it will begin “to be delicious” to us (v28). Ultimately as we seek to “nourish” our time in the scriptures, taking great care to learn and study and ponder and understand the word of God in all our scriptures, the effect of those words will be to nourish us. For we will “pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet” and we will “feast upon this fruit even until [we] are filled, that [we] hunger not” (v42).