How We Build Our Testimonies

I guess it's our family's turn to give talks at church. Sophie spoke in Primary yesterday, Phoebe has been asked to speak next Sunday. The topic for both of them is something they learned from Come, Follow Me from the week prior to the talk. This talk is based on a conversation Sophie and I had about 1 Nephi 11-15.

 

The Talk

After Lehi told his family about his dream of the tree of life, Nephi wanted to get his own testimony about it, so he prayed and asked to see what his father saw. He had an amazing vision that explained what Lehi had seen and then Nephi saw many more things all the way to the end of the world.

 

After his vision, Nephi went to his family and heard his brothers fighting about what their father had taught them. When they said they didn’t understand, here’s what Nephi said in 1 Nephi chapter 15 verses 8 and 9:

 

And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord?

And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.

 

In other words, they didn’t think they should pray and ask for help understanding, they thought that the Lord should just tell them without any effort from them.

 

But that’s not how the Holy Ghost works and that’s not how we build our testimonies. We should follow Nephi’s example and pray with faith to understand what our parents and teachers tell us so we can have our own witness that those things are true. And if we listen and have a soft heart and believe that we’ll get an answer, the Holy Ghost can teach us. Then we can have our own testimonies and can help teach others the truth. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.