SIGNS

Sometimes I look back at tragic things that have happened in my life and I wonder why I didn't recognize at the time certain signs that seem so obvious to me now that had I recognized them then, I could possibly have avoided the tragedies.

I think it has to do with the amount of knowledge that we have at the time. The more knowledge we have about something, the more we are able to recognize the related signs.

For example, last night, while camping, we were playing this werewolf game. The werewolves were trying to kill the villagers and the villagers were trying to kill the werewolves. The problem was that the only person who knew who the villagers and werewolves were was the leader of the game, and she couldn't tell us. We voted each round to kill someone hoping that it would be a werewolf, but we often killed villagers instead.

At the end of one game, the leader said, "Why didn't you vote to kill so and so? Couldn't you tell that when he did (whatever it was he did, I can't remember) it was a sure sign that he was a werewolf?"

To her it was a sure sign because she already knew he was the werewolf, but to those of us who didn't know, it didn't mean anything at all.

So that got me thinking how signs are already everywhere around us, but we only recognize those signs when we have enough knowledge about the subject.

Korihor, in the Book of Mormon (Alma 30), wanted to be given a sign before he would believe there was a God. Alma told him that there were signs all around him. Either he didn't recognize the signs due to a lack of knowledge, or because of a hard heart, he was unable to see them.

Satan wants to keep us from seeing those signs.

3 Ne. 1:22

"...there began to be lyings sent forth among the people, by Satan, to harden their hearts, to the intent that they might not believe in those signs and wonders which they had seen..."

It may appear that there are two different reasons why we do not see signs - lack of knowledge and a hard heart, but I think they are totally related. The more knowledge we have, the less likely we are to believe Satan's lies. If we do not believe Satan's lies, our hearts will not be hardened.

People today are not much different from the people of Alma's day. We often want to see the signs before we commit to believing. Many people in Alma's day said they would believe if they were just shown a sign so that they would know for sure. (Alma 32:17)

They didn't realize that the signs were already all around them. In order to see the signs they needed to "exercise a particle of faith" keeping in mind that "faith is not to have a perfect knowledge", but it does mean that we need to gain more knowledge by an "experiment upon the word".

In other words, the more we know and understand the words of Christ and practice them in our lives, the more we will see the signs that confirm in our hearts and minds that they are true.

There are signs in our every day lives that if we pay attention can help us to avoid some of the tragedies or pitfalls of life. Likewise, there are spiritual signs that if we pay attention to them will help us to increase our faith and testimony.