Your Faith and Your Patience With the Word

In his recent general conference address, President Nelson gave this invitation to increase our faith in the Savior: “My dear brothers and sisters, my call to you this Easter morning is to start today to increase your faith. Through your faith, Jesus Christ will increase your ability to move the mountains in your life, even though your personal challenges may loom as large as Mount Everest.” He suggested five things we can do, and one of them was this: “Third, act in faith. What would you do if you had more faith? Think about it. Write about it. Then receive more faith by doing something that requires more faith.” As I have thought about what I can do to show more faith there are lots of things which I want to do but which I struggle to find the time for. I would love to spend significantly more time doing indexing and family history work, but given life’s demands I feel I’ll have to settle for only small contributions when I can. More scriptures study is certainly a way I would like to show more faith, but again it seems unlikely that I can find the time to do more in the day than I am already doing. I have other similar aspirations of study and service but am simply constrained by time. But perhaps the one area I can show more faith is doing those things which will build the faith of my children.    

                One of the scriptures that President Nelson quoted was Alma’s famous discourse on faith to the Zoramites: “Alma asks us simply to experiment upon the word and ‘exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if [we] can no more than desire to believe.’” As I read Alma 32 today I thought about the final verses in context of my responsibility to raising my children in faith. Instead of the tree being a symbol of my own faith and spiritual progress, I saw it today as that of my children. These verses indeed contain the keys that I need to do to help them: “And behold, as the tree beginneth to grow, ye will say: Let us nourish it with great care, that it may get root, that it may grow up, and bring forth fruit unto us. And now behold, if ye nourish it with much care it will get root, and grow up, and bring forth fruit.” Certainly they need my nourishment, to carefully help them grow their faith and come to truly believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. Alma continued, “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 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…. Then, my brethren, ye shall reap the rewards of your faith, and your diligence, and patience, and long-suffering, waiting for the tree to bring forth fruit unto you” (Alma 32:37,41-43). I must seek to nourish their tree with diligence, patience, and long-suffering. I love this phrase in particular: “Your patience with the word in nourishing it.” In this context to me that is an invitation to seek to nourish their faith patiently through the word of God. That means reading the scriptures with them, helping them to understand God’s words, encouraging them patiently to discover on their own the power of the word in their lives. I cannot give them faith but I can nourish it patiently and diligently, I can with long-suffering gently encourage them to experiment on the word of the Lord. I hope that I can more intentionally grow my own my faith in the power of the word as I spend my time helping my children nourish theirs and become “a tree springing up unto everlasting life.”