Walk with Him: Daniel’s Experiment

Daniel and his three friends talked their guard into letting them do a 10-day trial or experiment, eating different food than the prescribed king’s diet. “Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse (foods made of seeds, grains, etc.) to eat, and water to drink” (Daniel1:12). In that short time, there were observable changes. “And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s meat” (Daniel 1:15).

In Hebrew, the word prove means to test, try, or experiment. Unlike long-term behavior changes, experiments can be short and give valuable information as to whether the action should be abandoned, continued without alterations or tweaked and tried again. Unlike typical goal setting where there seems to be only two options, succeed or fail, the intention of experiments is to learn from expected failures and repeated trials, knowing this is the true process of growth and progress.

Could you conduct a 10-day experiment before the end of the year? Maybe there is a change you’ve been considering and are ready to “try it out”. Put your phone in a different place than your bedroom at night, write in a gratitude journal, drink more water, or read one page in the Book of Mormon daily. Experiment with experimenting. Be a scientist, observing with curiosity, not judgement. Discover the freedom that comes when the desire is to learn from experience, not to be quickly perfect. (BTW, be sure to include Jesus as your fellow scientist.)

Elder Kevin R. Duncan described an intriguing experiment to see how non-members would react after reading only one single random page of the Book of Mormon. “Rather than us trying to tell the world what the Book of Mormon is and what it's about, we sought to have the world tell us. We asked 531 non-members to each read one page of the Book of Mormon and become a representative, a witness to the world, of what that page says. As they were reading, the non-members were instructed to look for and underline any passages where they read about either Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ. Then they were asked to explain how they felt. The results of the experiment were incredible. Even from reading just one single page, non-members were able to feel the Spirit. They were experimenting upon planting the word, and they knew it was a good seed, or that the word was good.”

“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do a 10-day simple experiment before the end of the year. Discover what you learn about yourself and your environment as you seek change. Remember: There is no failure in an experiment, just new learning.