John Bytheway knows what you can learn from a garden.
A popular speaker on the youth fireside and devotional circuit, Bytheway's latest audio offering focuses on the importance of personal testimony. In "Weed Your Brain, Grow Your Testimony," Bytheway tells listeners that spiritual wars are won with personal conviction.
Bytheway's well-known sense of humor is sprinkled throughout the CD, whether he's impersonating Barney Fife or describing his dandelion dread. With the recording taking place on Feb. 3, the night of Super Bowl XLII, Bytheway thanks the congregation for being where they are but still has some fun with the subject.
"I know there's other things you could be doing, which I won't mention, but we'll have a super Sunday here," he says. "It bowls me over that you came."
But what listeners will remember most from this recording are the spiritual analogies. Bytheway frames his talk with his personal experience of starting a garden for the first time.
After referencing the parable of the sower, Bytheway speaks about the "spiritual ground" of our souls. He emphasizes the importance of planting the seed within our heart and weeding out destructive elements that can deprive us of spiritual nutrients.
Growing our own personal testimony, he says, is a rewarding experience — just like his home-grown tomatoes meant far more to him than the ones in the produce department.
"Weed Your Brain, Grow Your Testimony" (2008) is produced by Deseret Book.