Talk given by Noah R. in church at Pleasant View Ward in Huntington Beach, CA., 2/19/23
Good morning or afternoon.
I don’t have a watch so I don’t know what time it is. For those of you who don't know me my name is Noah Richardson and today I was asked to speak on Alma 32:28 and how the verse compares the word of god to a seed. I’ll start by reading the verse, “Now we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.”
My first time reading through that I was very confused. I actually thought back to my primary days and sang a children's hymn in my head about faith being like a little seed, but that’s irrelevant to this talk at this moment.
What this is saying can be fully understood if you are a scholar of the Book of Mormon but I am a scholar of the High School textbooks so I instantly referred to the footnotes of my book, which referred me to the next chapter Alma 33:23 where it reads, “And now, my brethren, I desire that ye shall plant this word in your hearts, and as it beginneth to swell even so nourish it by your faith. And behold, it will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life. And then may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of his Son. And even all this can ye do if ye will. Amen.” This gives us a little more information but I needed just a little bit more. I turned to the footnotes once more. This time they referred me to a very important piece of information. Although it had previously said that the word was like unto a seed I had surefire proof that it was the Word of God.
In Luke 8:11 it states “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.” Now I have all the information I need to piece this together. God’s word is everything He gives us, from scripture to words spoken by our prophet today. Therefore, we must bring those things into our heart and let our heart discover if it is true and if it is good. But, we must not let it sit there. There is no point to understanding something and knowing something is good if there is no action involved. That is where faith comes in. As we believe that it is true it will begin to grow within us. As it grows you must continue to keep your faith in the word. You will begin to see blessings in your life because of your continued belief in the word of God.
A very important blessing that we are given through our continued faith in the word is the blessing of Eternal Life. Now here’s a question. Have you ever seen a tree that grows straight into the sky and doesn’t ever branch out? I don’t think so. At least I hope not. If we have continued faith in God and in his word we will gain blessings. But, wouldn’t you want your best friend to experience those blessings just as you do. To see and feel the truthfulness of the gospel for themselves. I believe this is the next step in our journey to continue our growth of the seed. As we grow closer to our eternal blessings we must also bring other children of God to see the truthfulness of the word of God, so that they might also be able to grow their seeds by faith in the word of God.
I believe that reading the scriptures daily is extremely important. Although I have very little time between my two sports, school and all that entails, and my social life, I still find a little bit of time to sit in my room each day and listen to the scriptures. I’d much rather prefer to read them but by then my eyes are tired. I know life gets harder. I’m not excited about that. I can tell you from my personal experience that my days are much better when I read/listen to 1 chapter of scripture each night. It may seem like a menial task. Something that doesn’t change the course of the day but “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass” and I hope that I can grow my seed to be as big and filled with branches as those really old trees that people find in jungles. That all starts when I choose to do those small and simple things every day.
I have a testimony of this church and I know that God’s word can grow if we have the faith to allow it to. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.