Review
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Title: Weed Your Brain, Grow Your Testimony
Author: John Bytheway
Publisher: Deseret Book
Genre: Inspirational Youth Talk
Year Published: 2008
Length: CD - 65 min. PDF slide Show - 54 pages/1.31 mb
Format: CD with downloadable .pdf format slide show
ISBN: 13: 978-1-59038-882-2
Price: $13.95

Reviewed by Andrew Hamilton

Soil, rocks, roots, “bind-weed,” “lawn weapons,” “Got-Root” t-shirts, and “white globes of death” are just a few of the subjects covered in “Weed Your Brain, Grow Your Testimony” the latest CD from prolific youth speaker and author John Bytheway.

The first thing that you learn from this CD after pushing “play” is that it was recorded, “in front of an audience, on February third, 2008, during the Super Bowl game between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants.” Bytheway has almost as much fun making reference to this as he does with the jokes about his name.

After the introductory jokes Bytheway explains that the “war in Heaven” is actually the “war which began in Heaven,” that we are still in it now, and that the fight is between freedom and addiction. He then says that the only weapon we have that will allow us to win this war is a testimony of Jesus Christ.

He states that we often speak of the need to “gain” a testimony, and then says that “‘[G]ain’ is a laundry detergent and a stock market term.” “I would like to suggest,” he says, “that we ‘grow’ a testimony.” Using the parable of the Sower, or the parable of the “Four Types of Soil,” the story of the conversion of Alma the Younger, Alma’s “seed” sermon to the Zoramites in Alma 32, Lehi’s vision of the Tree of Life, as well as personal experiences from his attempts to grow a garden and a lawn, Bytheway teaches in simple ways that will appeal to teens how the Lord prepares them to “grow” their testimonies.

Among the lessons that he shares are, “If you want good things to grow in your garden and in your life, you have to put them there…vegetables don’t grow by accident and testimonies don’t grow by accident either.” “Weeds will come out of nowhere…you don’t have to buy dandelion seeds… would anybody deliberately plant weeds in their garden, but spiritually speaking, sometimes we do…don’t waste any time reading the wrong things, watching the wrong shows, visiting the wrong websites, there’s just not time for that. But sometimes we do, we put weeds in our garden…sometimes you have to weed your brain.”

One of the things that makes this talk so interesting, amusing, and educational is the wide and fun variety of sources Bytheway cites. These include, but are not limited to: the scriptures, General Authorities, the KSL Garden Show, and Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife. You never quite know who or what he is going to quote next, or when he is going to throw in a funny or touching story, but they always relate back to the gospel in a way that appeals to teenagers.

This is his second talk to include a downloadable slide show (it is available as a pdf file at deseretbook.com). Most of the slides are of the scriptures and quotes that he references, with emphasized words highlighted, but it also includes some pictures of harrows, flowers, weeds, dirt, and other images referred to in the talk. It isn’t necessary to have the slide show to benefit from this talk, but it is a nice touch.

One of the great things about this talk, and most of John Bytheway’s talks, is that, although the main audience is young adults, it has a fairly universal appeal. After I listened to it, I listened with my wife and children. We laughed, we learned, we had a great time. After a few days my eight and eleven year old daughters had listened to it so many times that they had some parts memorized. Even my parents who are pushing sixty are John Bytheway fans, so he appeals to at least three generations of Hamiltons. If you know any teens who think that “church related stuff” is always boring then I would recommend a John Bytheway talk and “Weed Your Brain, Grow Your Testimony” would be a great one to start with.