Nourishment to spirit needed
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His boyhood experience of going with his grandfather to provide supplemental nutrients to cattle by putting out rock salt for them served as an analogy in the priesthood session address of President James E. Faust.
"A nutrient furnishes nourishment that promotes growth and healing both in animals and humans," said President Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency. "Grandfather's cattle craved the nutrients in the rock salt, but human beings need something more. They need to be replenished spiritually, because 'life is more than meat' (Luke 12:23) and 'there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding' (Job 32:8). The human spirit needs love. It also needs to be 'nourished up in the words of faith and good doctrine' (1 Timothy 4:6)."
President Faust said spiritual nourishment prepares people for baptism and noted that the most important spiritual nutrient is a testimony of God as eternal Father, Jesus as Savior and Redeemer and the Holy Ghost as Comforter.
He told of a young man starting his senior year in high school who resolved to nourish himself by studying the scriptures a half-hour each day. He didn't feel the anticipated spiritual high and wondered what he was doing wrong until he remembered that he had joined with his friends in telling shameful jokes at school.
"The answer to his question, 'What am I doing wrong?' was simple," President Faust said. "He was reading the scriptures, marking the scriptures and even enjoying the scriptures, but he was not living the counsel given in the scriptures. As he renewed his scripture reading, and tried to live by Christ's example, he soon noticed how different areas of his life began to blossom. By incorporating the scriptures into his life, he had added an important nutrient."
President Faust told of a priests quorum member who "tasted the nutrient of selfless service." The young man, Jim, was determined to outdo his fellow priests in collecting food for the needy as a service project. But when the priests returned with the food they had gathered, Jim's cart was empty. Speaking to Jim in private, the quorum adviser found that Jim had collected a cart full of food, but when he stopped at the home of a woman of another faith to gather a donation, he found that her cupboards were bare. Instead of taking the can of peaches she offered, he ended up giving all the food to her.
President Faust warned that spiritual nutrients "can lose their potency and strength if we do not live worthy of the divine guidance we need.... We need to keep our minds and bodies clean from all forms of addiction and pollution. We would never choose to eat spoiled or contaminated food. In the same selective way, we should be careful not to read or view anything that is not in good taste."
