Roots of Testimony

Elder Dalin H. Oaks gave a talk he titled "The Parable of the Sower," though he said that "The Savior’s examples could cause us to think of this parable as the parable of the soils." Indeed, far more time in the parable is spent on the soils than the sower, so I've always wondered why it's called the parable of the sower rather than the soils. But I digress.

The first kind of soil Elder Oaks talks about in detail is the stony ground. The seeds that fell here were unable to grow because, as the Savior explained, "it had no depth of earth: but when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away" (Mark 4:5-6).

Jesus explained that this describes those “who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness,” but because they “have no root in themselves, … when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended” (Mark 4:16–17).

 The root in this parable refers to one's testimony. Elder Oaks went on to say that there are many reasons why a convert, or even a life-long member of the church may be lacking in testimony, and he made it clear that "spiritual food is necessary for spiritual survival." Without a strong testimony, we won't be able to endure the storms of life with our faith intact. "In an age dominated by the Internet, which magnifies messages that menace faith, we must increase our exposure to spiritual truth in order to strengthen our faith and stay rooted in the gospel."

We need to make sure our hearts are open to spiritual truths so they can take root in us and strengthen us against the challenges of mortal life. If we are to endure to the end, our testimonies will need to be as strong as we can make them. Thankfully, it doesn't take much time or effort to do the daily things necessary to keep our testimonies strong. Daily morning and evening prayers and daily scripture study is a great start. Regular fasting and worship will help a lot. But here's the trick - It's not so much what you do that will strengthen your testimony, but where your heart and mind are when you do them. When we take the Sacrament each week, are our thoughts focused on the Savior, or are we thinking about other things? Do we take time to ponder the scriptures we read? Are our prayers sincere? It may be that we are already doing all the right things, but unless we're doing them with the right heart, they may not be doing us much good.

On the positive side,we can be doing things that are (or seem to be) totally unrelated to the gospel, such as going about our daily lives, but if we reflect on spiritual things while we go about our business, we can use that time to continue to nourish our spirits and strengthen our roots, even as we perform mundane tasks.

Whether we're actively doing things to strengthen our testimonies, or whether we're working on more temporal goals, we should try to think of the Savior as much as possible in order to make sure our testimonies grow and remain as strong as we'll need them to be. The world, for the most part, is a desert when it comes to spirituality. To endure in this desert, we're going to need strong, deep spiritual roots.