How to keep your testimony strong no matter your location or circumstances.
Photo by Victor Freitas
Growing up in an all-girls Anglican boarding school in South Africa, Calla Wilford was the only member of the Church in her school. Because she lived two hours away from the closest seminary building, she couldn’t go to seminary, and as an athlete, she was required to attend her field hockey games on Sundays. While her physical muscles were getting stronger, her spiritual muscles were atrophying.
Turning to the gospel of Jesus Christ helped her find ways to strengthen her testimony. In his talk “Exercising Our Spiritual Muscles,” Elder Juan Pablo Villar of the Quorums of the Seventy provides a few ways we can strengthen our spiritual muscles. These suggestions include developing our spiritual gifts, strengthening faith through reading the scriptures and talks from our leaders, exercising our faith in situations that require us to demonstrate faith, becoming more in tune with the Spirit, and working on our personal weaknesses. From these suggestions, Calla then compiled a list of four ways she could strengthen her testimony:
- Determine to know God more intimately: Read the scriptures that talk about the life and ministry of Christ. Learn to recognize the ways he blesses you, and begin a gratitude journal: write down at least five things you are grateful for everyday.
- Learn to hear the still small voice: Become more sensitive to the whisperings of the Spirit.
- Say deeper prayers: When you pray, realize who you are talking to. Be thoughtful about what you say. As you take the time to focus more on your prayers, you will experience spiritual growth.
- If you can’t physically go to seminary, go through the seminary teaching books on your own: During Calla’s four years of high school, she was able to complete the entire seminary program by taking a few moments each day to go through the lessons. The bishop of her home ward then required her to submit monthly updates and approved her graduation.
Even if we do not have physical access to the blessings of the gospel, we need to constantly be working on developing our spiritual muscles regardless of our circumstances.
Read the complete talk by Elder Juan Pablo Villar entitled “Exercising Our Spiritual Muscles.”
Source: General Conference
—Taelin Wilford, Latter-day Saint Insights
FEATURE IMAGE BY AURENE WILFORD
Find more insights
Learn how to develop your spiritual strength by reading “Build a Fortress of Spirituality and Protection” by Elder Ronald A. Rasband.
Learn how to receive personal revelation in “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives” by President Russell M. Nelson.