A Well-Balanced Diet

“Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.” (2 Nephi 32:3). “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4). There are many scriptures that compare studying the word of God to eating food. It’s not nearly as metaphorical as you might think. The words of Christ nourish our spirits, and we should be mindful about the kinds of spiritual nutrients that we are getting. Just as we ought to do with food, we need to make sure that our spiritual diet is plentiful and varied. Maybe we believe that a single verse a day is all we can handle, but that is a starvation diet. We would never even attempt to get all of our physical food once a week at church, and if we did try to do that, we would most assuredly die. Our spirits may be tougher than our bodies, but going days or weeks without spiritual nourishment is hard on us. We might find it difficult to stick to a healthy spiritual diet because in the past we’ve gotten bored or sick of reading the same scriptures over and over. And while we should definitely try to include the Book of Mormon and other scriptures into our daily spiritual feast in the same way you would include staples like rice and other grains, there’s so much more variety we can add into our feast. The Gospel Library app has all kinds of content - Conference talks, videos, illustrations, music. There are very high-level abstract concepts and very practical and actionable advice and instruction. Beyond official church publications, there are all kinds of resources that fellow truth-seekers of all kinds of faiths share with the world - from books and magazines and radio shows to blogs and podcasts and youtube videos. I know that as we take the time to craft a well-balanced spiritual diet, a true feast, for ourselves, we won’t have to try to force ourselves to suffer through our study session. We will savor the words of Christ in all of their infinite flavors and combinations, and our spirits will grow healthy and strong as they get all of the essential spiritual vitamins and minerals.