We can have a spiritual early warning system by:

1. reading and talking about the Book of Mormon regularly
2. bearing testimony spontaneously
3. inviting children to act

This spiritual early warning system can alert us early to deviations from the path and also to spiritual growth.

As parents and gospel teachers we are not in the business of distributing fish, we are in the business of teaching others to fish for themselves.

Spiritual warnings should lead to increasingly vigilant watching. You and I live in a day of warning. And because we have been and will be warned, we need to be watching with all perseverance.

I pray for the guidance of the Holy Ghost as I describe a spiritual early warning system that can help parents in Zion to be watchful and discerning concerning their children. This early warning system applies to children of all ages and contains three basic components: (1) reading and talking about the Book of Mormon with your children, (2) bearing testimony of gospel truths spontaneously with your children, and (3) inviting children as gospel learners to act and not merely be acted upon. Parents who do these things faithfully will be blessed to recognize early signals of spiritual growth in or challenges with their children and be better prepared to receive inspiration to strengthen and help those children.

The Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on earth because it centers upon the Truth, even Jesus Christ, and restores the plain and precious things that have been taken away from the true gospel. The unique combination of these two factors – a focus on the Savior and the plainness of the teachings – powerfully invites the confirming witness of the third member of the Godhead, even the Holy Ghost. Consequently, the Book of Mormon speaks to the spirit and to the heart of the reader like no other volume of scripture.

Regular reading of and talking about the Book of Mormon invite the power to resist temptation and to produce feelings of love within our families.

Youth of all ages, even infants, can and do respond to the distinctive spirit of the Book of Mormon. Children may not understand all of the words and stories, but they certainly can feel the familiar spirit described by Isaiah.

Testimony is personal knowledge, based upon the witness of the Holy Ghost, that certain facts of eternal significance are true.

The reactions of children to impromptu testimony bearing and their eagerness or reluctance to participate are potent sources of spiritual early warning signals.

As gospel learners, we should be “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22). Our hearts are opened to the influence of the Holy Ghost as we properly exercise agency and act in accordance with correct principles – and we thereby invite His teaching and testifying power. . . . And a child is never too young to take part in this pattern of learning.

Giving a man a fish feeds him for one meal. Teaching a man to fish feeds him for a lifetime. As parents and gospel instructors, you and I are not in the business of distributing fish; rather, our work is to help our children learn “to fish” and to become spiritually steadfast.

Are you and I helping our children become agents who act and seek learning by study and by faith, or have we trained our children to wait to be taught and acted upon? Are we as parents primarily giving our children the equivalent of spiritual fish to eat, or are we consistently helping them to act, to learn for themselves, and to stand steadfast and immovable?

The spiritual understanding you and I have been blessed to receive, and which has been confirmed as true in our hearts, simply cannot be given to our children. The tuition of diligence and of learning by study and also by faith must be paid to obtain and personally “own” such knowledge.

I bear witness that parents who consistently read and talk about the Book of Mormon with their children, who share testimony spontaneously with their children, and who invite children as gospel learners to act and not merely be acted upon will be blessed with eyes that can see afar off and with ears that can hear the sound of the trumpet. The spiritual discernment and inspiration you will receive from the combination of these three holy habits will enable you to stand as watchmen on the tower for your families – watching with all perseverance – to the blessing of your immediate family and your future posterity.