A Computer Problem Opened my Eyes to How the Savior Changes Us

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fists on desk with keyboard

I bought a new expensive computer to run specialized software for editing films. I started a new project and everything looked great. Then I opened a project I’d transferred from my old computer and all the images, all the faces of people, were blue! What happened?

I called tech support. They navigated me through menus to a box they told me to click. Immediately all colors displayed correctly, beautifully. No more blue people. The color management system on the old computer operated differently. That simple click re-calibrated the earlier project’s color settings so the computer processed color data correctly to show true colors. That changed everything.

The Savior wants us to know we can choose how we react to the Word of God. He identified four main choices and the natural results of each option. He expressed this by comparing the Word of God to a seed.

A sower casts seeds that fall onto four types of soil. Each kind of soil yields a certain consequence for that seed. Seed that falls on a pathway is stepped on or devoured by birds. Seed among stones springs up but then withers and dies. Seed among thorns are choked. But seed in fertile soil grows, ripens, and yields an abundant harvest.

Our Savior’s teaching re-calibrates our thinking. It changes how we process our decisions and determine our actions. We see, feel, and hear differently. We understand the actions in the story and the results they produce. This re-calibrates in our minds and hearts what the Word of God actually means to us. Actions yield specific consequences. We choose the kind of soil we want to be when the Word of God is sown in us. Knowing this, we can choose to make ourselves into fertile, receptive soil to receive His word and the gifts that follow.

The Savior used parables to make concepts more clear, more meaningful, more actionable! When we open our eyes and hearts, a parable can teach true principles, true doctrine. The story makes it memorable.

Story is principle put into action. We see actions that yield specific results. Cause and effect. When people take action and receive certain results – that is a story. Whether sourced from real life or fiction, well-expressed stories show truth put into action. We more clearly see the benefits of living the doctrines when they are presented in their true colors.

Most significantly, the Spirit speaks to us and testifies that those important principles are true (see D&C 100:5-8). True principles, true doctrines, expressed in a story naturally fill our hearts with a desire to take action and gain those beneficial results for ourselves and our families. A story well told is an excellent motivator for good. It changes how we think, feel, and act. That is how the Savior re-calibrates us. And that changes everything.

Robert Hatch has narrated programs daily on KBYU-FM and weekly on the ABC radio network. His real career is directing films -- 7 for the BBC, 56 for the Vision Sattelite Network, and a series of films in Israel, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe. As a director, he has received some 300 film festival honors in competitions worldwide. His film, Infinite Gift, is a drama about understanding the Savior and His atonement.