When was the last time you bore your testimony out loud?
Are you a get-up-every-fast-and-testimony-meeting type of person?
Or only-in-smaller-settings?
Or only-in-the-family?
Or… rarely at all?
I don’t usually bear my testimony in formal settings.
And sometimes, I’ve felt like I’ve fallen short for not bearing my testimony at every formal chance I get.
But I’ve slowly expanded what I understand it means to bear my testimony.
It doesn’t need to mean verbalizing an extensive talk where I testify in perfect wording about every single thing that I believe or know.
A testimony is often just a quiet witness of a truth that I know by the Spirit.
It can be in a casual setting.
It can be unplanned.
It can be in the context of living my real life.
It can be short and incomplete.
As the group of men traveling from Missouri back to Ohio met up with their friends headed in the opposite direction, they bore testimonies together.
The Lord told them In Doctrine and Covenants 62:3:
“Ye are blessed, for the testimony which ye have borne is recorded in heaven for the angels to look upon; and they rejoice over you, and your sins are forgiven you.”
Every time I say a simple truth, I am bearing my testimony.
When my daughter is playing and I remind her: “Jesus loves you!”
That’s bearing my testimony.
When I tell my friend that I’m actually not worried about certain outside circumstances because I feel peace from believing in Jesus Christ…
That’s bearing my testimony.
When I write down in my journal where I saw the hand of God in my life today…
That’s bearing my testimony to future self.
I’m not sure exactly what gets recorded in the great Book of Life, but I know that my life has been richly blessed when I make an effort to insert bits of testimony into my day.
To not shy away from mentioning Jesus’ name or stating what I really believe.
A quiet witness of a single truth that I know.
“You bear your testimony when you share spiritual feelings with others.” – Gary E. Stevenson
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
