Building a Testimony

We interrupt this travelogue to share Peter's talk from this past Sunday. He commented afterward that he looked up more during this delivery than during his previous talk. Yay for progress! I only edited a few words, the rest are his.

A long time ago I remember sitting in a Sunday school class, trying to come up with a new, unique answer to my teacher's question. I don't exactly remember what the question was, but I do remember my teacher telling us that it was okay to give "primary answers" since they were the clearest and often most accurate answer, simple and to the point.

When asked how to gain a testimony of the gospel, my mind went to these kinds of primary answers, and I'd like to share some of them with you today, while adding some commentary to further expand on them.

Before someone can even go about putting these answers to work, they must first have a desire to seek truth, as stated in an April 1974 conference talk by Elder Franklin D. Richards “However, to obtain a testimony one must have a real desire to know the truth and must be willing to exert considerable effort.” All the sources of a testimony first require a willingness to use them. Something that I am fond of doing when studying my scriptures is verifying what I read by finding the same teachings in other sources. The idea that we must have desire and effort is also illustrated in the often used Matthew 7: 7-8 “7Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

Once you’ve found the desire and willingness to seek truth, you must then know what sources to use. A common primary answer given is scripture. Reading your scriptures can help you gain a testimony. That is the answer that a lot of primary kids know and would tell you if you ask them. Personally, I believe that reading scriptures is one of the two most important pillars of a testimony, and my reasoning is this. All that we know about the gospel, all of the stories and lessons we have, apart from those that come from modern revelation, are rooted in the scriptures. If we want to gain an understanding and testimony, we should turn to that writing that we have so readily available to us, and start to read and relate to what we read; searching for ourselves, the meaning of those books. With time and effort, meaning will come to us, and our testimony will begin to strengthen, or even start forming to begin with.

Another common answer given in primary is prayer. We should pray and ask if things are true. This source is the second of those pillars that I believe make a strong testimony. We have a way to directly communicate with the very being that created us and the world we live in. I think we can sometimes take that for granted. If we have doubts, or seek answers, we can literally ask God himself. Isn’t that amazing? What better way to gain a testimony than to ask for a heavenly confirmation that such things are true? This idea is also illustrated in another popular verse, James 1:5 "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” Something that struck me while copying that scripture into my talk was this: We usually think about that first part, If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, but I feel we oftentimes gloss over the last part: “that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not.” Upbraideth was a word I didn’t quite recognize, but the annotation gave the synonyms “reproaches and censures” both of which mean to disapproval and disappointment. The meaning I take from this, and “giveth to all men liberally” is that it doesn’t matter who you are or really what your personal values and beliefs are, but instead God wants us to ask Him, in any instance where we lack wisdom, and he will not disapprove or be disappointed. That I feel is the essence of a testimony: Us, putting in the effort to learn and seek wisdom, through scripture, and then verifying what we find with our God Himself. That ability to search for answer and meaning, the agency we have to find that for ourselves, I think is a very beautiful thing, and one of the greatest gifts we have from Him. We often, as humans strive for deeper understanding of life, and I bear my testimony that testimonies are our divinely gifted source of that meaning and understanding, strengthened by both God and ourselves, to create a powerful understanding of our lives. I know that if we seek answers in the scriptures, and verify them through prayer, we can gain and strengthen our testimonies, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.