The Benefit of the Doubt, The Benefit of the Faith

 Focusing on two questions together has given me some helpful insights. One is “why is faith such a prominent principle in the gospel of Jesus Christ?” The other is “how can I give others 'the benefit of the doubt,' especially those in my family?” Considering them together has shown me that faith is connected to the easier-to-understand principle that God is our loving Heavenly Father. Faith in God actually has a lot in common with the principle of giving the benefit of the doubt to our loved ones: both lead to good relationships.

I take “benefit of the doubt” to mean doubting the bad and looking for the good. The word “doubt” makes me think about how giving the benefit of the doubt is related to trust, and trust is one of my favorite words to describe faith. 

I will first show a chart organizing my realizations on the subject, and then give some additional explanation.

I often view life as a big learning experience like school. In school, however, we don’t usually lack physical sight of our teacher. I have pondered to know why faith, the first principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ, is necessary in this “school of life,” and to know how the principle of faith can connect me to God. I have concluded that the school of life is to learn about love, and love is connected to trust. I think that family experience, such as experience in giving family members the benefit of the doubt, makes the connection between love and trust clear.

While I can’t think of a good school metaphor, thinking of trust in marriage is helpful. It would be bad for my relationship with my wife if either of us set up cameras to monitor the behavior of the other. Such rigid focus on physical sight and sound shows a lack of trust, and that lack of trust shows a lack of love.

God demonstrates great trust in us, and that can help us feel His love. He sends us His children to raise and mentor and lets us go through our lives without sending down lightning bolts every time we mess up. That shows trust, and the growth I’ve experienced and love I have felt through that trust is immense.

Likewise, we can show and grow our love for God through trusting Him, which I view as fairly synonymous with having faith in Him. One difference between trust in a spouse and faith in God is that increasing trust between spouses does not involve the question of whether your spouse exists, only whether your spouse has certain attributes. Perhaps one reason that it makes sense that many of us have not seen God is that a perfect knowledge of His existence may not allow us to fully feel His trust. While I believe that God exists and watches me from above, the fact that I do not have a perfect knowledge of His existence helps me to more often behave well primarily because I love Him and others, not because I know that He is watching me even more thoroughly than the set of cameras that I mentioned above. As this love has developed, I have come to delight in the fact that God watches over me, and even knows my thoughts and desires.

In summary . . . although it is not always easy to connect with a being who we cannot see or hear as we see and hear our other loved ones, perhaps we’ll find that this experience on earth was the best way possible for us to have the trust that a good relationship with anybody requires. I know that God trusts me, and I know that He has given me relationships here on earth to bless me. My relationship with my parents and spouse have been particular blessings to me in feeling joy and learning of God’s love for me. 

Sometimes we have to choose whether to see people in certain situations as scary bears or friendly bears having a hard time.

On the occasions when I do not fully understand why faith is needed or how to give the benefit of the doubt to others, I can still continue on, inspired by scriptures like the following:

“Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.

And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them.” - Mosiah 4:9-10

Even simple belief, short of perfect knowledge, can be very powerful when we see how it helps us in building a relationship with God and with others who we dearly love.