Every so often, I learn (usually through facebook) that somebody I used to know has been having struggles with their testimony. My response to such news usually involves an evaluation of my own testimony. As I was doing so several weeks ago - definitely over a month, but I can't say exactly how long - I did as the Lord directed Oliver Cowdery to do and cast my mind back to the sure communications I had received. And I realized something.
My strongest confirmation had changed.
As a young teenager, I bore my testimony in seminary. On this particular occasion, I clearly remembered the confirmation I had received upon praying about the Book of Mormon after I finished reading all the way through for the first time. It had only been a couple years earlier, so that makes sense. During my recentish personal inventory, I remembered that such an event had occurred, but the intervening years had majorly eroded the impression.
I now have a different most clear and vivid witness that the Lord wants me in this church, along with a few newer, subtler messages confirming the same thing.
I have often heard in church that gaining a testimony isn't something that you just do once and check it off your list. You have to continually work at building and strengthening it. I had understood that you need to be continually strengthening it because life is going to get more challenging, so you need a firmer foundation. But now I see an additional reason in that memory fades. And as memories fade, so, too, can the knowledge the events brought you.
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I intended to wait a week or two, then write this up and post it. Obviously, I didn't get to it quite that quickly. Then this morning, I decided I would definitely get to it today.
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1 comment:
Thank you!
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