The Gospel of Baseball Part 1: Home to First through Faith

The first base principle of the Gospel of Baseball is Faith. The book of Alma, in the Book of Mormon, chapter 32 verse 21 states "faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." As a baseball player you stand at home plate you know nothing about what will happen next. The goal is to get a base hit but there are a lot of different scenarios that can play out before that happens. You could strike out, get walked, ground out, or even get hit by a pitch. But you have to have hope that you can get a base hit and make it to first. This hope is also faith. Alma 32:27 states "if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." So in order for us to experiment on the word, or in this case if we're going to get a base hit, we need to grab our bat, take a practice swing or two, and step up to the plate. And by doing so we are showing we have at least a desire to make it to first base. And over time that desire and faith builds, through diligence and patience, in us until we believe we are going to get a base hit every time.
   This same principle of faith is the first principle in Christ's Gospel too. Just like the baseball player can't see if they're going to get a hit or not, we can't see God, we don't know if He is there through sight. But if we will show a desire, have faith and experiment, through scripture study and prayer, we can come to know if He really is there. Through that faith we can come to know that He is our Father in Heaven, He hears and answers our prayers, and He loves us, just like the baseball player knows he'll get on base as the ball Cracks! off his bat and he reaches first base safely.