Although we all miss Elder Boyd K. Packer, his humor and wisdom live on in the many stories and parables he told throughout his life and service as a general authority. The following parables, taken from his book Memorable Stories and Parables, will help you an answer everyday questions and defend your faith in difficult situations.

How do you know God lives? No one can know that.

I learned a long time ago that spiritual knowledge is described in a different language than is secular knowledge.

On this I had a valuable experience before I was a General Authority. It affected me profoundly. I sat on a plane next to a professed atheist who ridiculed my belief in God. I bore my testimony to him: "There is a God. I know He lives!"

He said: "You don't know. Nobody knows that. You can't know it." When I would not yield, the atheist posed perhaps the ultimate challenge to testimony. "All right," he said in a sneering, condescending way, "you say you know." Then, "Tell me how you know."

I could not do it. I was helpless to communicate. When I used the words spirit and witness, the atheist responded, "I don't know what you are talking about." The words prayer, discernment, and faith also were meaningless to him.

"You see," he said, "you don't really know. If you did, you would be able to tell me how you know."

Perhaps, I thought, I had borne my testimony to him unwisely, and I was at a loss as to what to do. Then came the experience. A thought, a revelation, came into my mind, and I said to the atheist: "Let me ask you a question. Do you know what salt tastes like?"

"Of course I do," was his reply.

"When did you taste salt last?"

"I just had dinner on the plane."

"You just think you know what salt tastes like," I said.

He insisted, "I know what salt tastes like as well as I know anything."

"If I gave you a cup of salt and a cup of sugar, could you tell the salt from the sugar if I let you taste them both?"

"Now you are getting juvenile," he said. "Of course I could tell the difference. I know what salt tastes like. I know it as well as I know anything."

"Then," I said, "assuming that I have never tasted salt, explain to me just what it tastes like."

After some thought, he ventured, "Well-I-uh, it is not sweet, and it is not sour."

"You've told me what it isn't, not what it is."

After several attempts, of course he could not do it. He could not convey, in words alone, so ordinary an experience as tasting salt.

I bore testimony to him once again and said: "I know there is a God. You ridiculed that testimony and said that if I did know, I would be able to tell you exactly how I know. My friend, spiritually speaking, I have tasted salt. I am no more able to convey to you in words alone how this knowledge has come than you are able to tell me what salt tastes like. But I say to you again, there is a God! He lives! And just because you don't know, don't try to tell me that I don't know, for I do!"

As we parted, I heard him mutter: "I don't need your religion for a crutch. I don't need it."

That to me was a great lesson on personal revelation. From it I learned about prompting and the truth of the scripture which says, "Treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man" (D&C 84:85).

Since then I have never been embarrassed or ashamed that I could not explain in words alone everything I know spiritually, or tell just how I received it. From such experiences we will surely suffer some humiliation, but that is good for our faith. And we have an ever-present guide. We will be tested, but we will never be left without help.

Get more insightful parables from President Packer in Memorable Stories and Parables.

This volume brings together 26 more of the most memorable stories and parables of Pres Boyd K Packer. Read and enjoy treasures such as The Mediator, Spiritual Crocodiles, Channeling Your Thoughts, Balm of Gilead, Of Cars and Dates, and more. Pres Packer follows the Lord's injunction to "Teach ye diligently" and does so in a manner that is clear and lasting. These short stories are great for daily inspiration and will be life lessons that are hard to forget.

How do I defend spiritual truths in an intellectual setting?

Near the end of the course work for my doctorate at Brigham Young University I was enrolled with three others in a philosophy class. Two of us were completing our doctorates; the other two were just beginning their graduate work.

There arose an issue between myself and the other doctoral candidate. The professor deftly moderated the contest without taking either side. The debate became more intense, and the other two students took sides, one on each.

So there we were, two contestants, each with a "second." The issue grew more important, and each day I left the class feeling a greater failure. Why should this concern me? It concerned me because I was right and he was wrong, and I knew it and thought he knew it, and yet he was able to best me in every discussion. Each day I felt more inadequate, more foolish, and more tempted to capitulate.

Then one of the most important experiences of my entire education occurred. One day as we were leaving class, his "second" made the comment to me, "You're losing, aren't you?"

There was no pride left to prevent me from consenting to the obvious. "Yes, I'm losing."

"Do you know what's the matter with you?" he asked.

I became interested and answered, "I would like very much to know."

"The trouble with you," he said, "is that you are fighting out of context."

I asked him what he meant; I didn't know and he couldn't explain it. He just said, "You are fighting out of context."

That night I thought continuously about it. It wasn't the grade or the credit I was concerned about-it was bigger than that. I was being beaten and humiliated in my efforts to defend a principle that was true. The statement, "You are fighting out of context" stayed in my mind. Finally, in my humiliation I went before the Lord in prayer. Then I knew.

The next day we returned to class, this time to stay in context. When the debate was renewed, instead of mumbling some stilted, sophisticated, philosophical statement, calculated to show I was conversant with philosophical terminology and had read a book or two, instead of saying, "The a priori acquisition of intelligence as though from some external source of enlightenment," I stayed in context and said, "Revelation from God."

Suddenly the tables were turned. I was rescued from defeat, and I learned a lesson I would not forget. I stand in debt to the unassuming student from whose remark I learned so much.

All of us need to learn, seek, grow. If you are a student, go on for advanced degrees, rise to prominence in your chosen field. In any event, you needn't be unwise or immature by seeking to impose your religious convictions on others. But, when discussing the Church or the gospel, don't be drawn out of context.

Certainly you will not be able to persuade everyone to accept your views. Be wise enough to know when not to try. You can, however, inform people clearly enough that, accept them or not, they know what your convictions are. In this way, teach faith, repentance, baptism .

In any field of knowledge, there are prerequisites. At a university, for example, a number of courses there are required prerequisites. You cannot register for Chemistry 371 without first having taken Chemistry 106. To enroll in Education 657 you must first have completed either Education 460 or 550. And so on. If you take the advanced course first without the prerequisite or equivalent training, likely you will founder. Without knowledge of the basic principles of a discipline, you may misunderstand, even reject, elements that are positively true when related to foundation principles of the discipline.

In the gospel there are some prerequisite courses without which the deeper meaning of some principles of the gospel may not be understood, in fact which may be completely misunderstood. For instance, the conditions under which personal revelation can be received could hardly be accepted or understood by one who has not completed the prerequisite courses of faith, repentance, baptism, and the reception of the Holy Ghost.

The bottom line is that we must never allow ourselves to be ashamed of the gospel because someone doesn't agree with us, even if that person is apparently alert, intelligent, and well-intentioned. Don't falter because you can't explain it in his terminology, in his context.

Recognize, too, that there must needs be opposition, that you cannot be totally faithful to the gospel yet popular with everybody. In fact, you can't be anything and be fully accepted by everybody!

No other dispensation has had the gospel without any
challenge, without any opposition or resistance, without
persecution from the world, and to expect that we shall
be without such conditions is to expect that which will
never be. We do not hold membership in the Church
and its blessings without paying a price for it.

But a scoffing, cynical remark or a scornful glance
surely is a small price to pay for the whole gospel plan.

Get more insightful parables from President Packer in Memorable Stories and Parables.

How do you know we have spirits that will still exist when we die?

We are dual beings, a spirit son or daughter of God, alive and intelligent in the first estate, confined now to a body of flesh and bone. "The spirit and the body are the soul of man" (D&C 88:15). The spirit is eternal; the body will become so. There are languages we can speak and hear with the body. There are languages of the spirit, one being revelation.

It should not be as difficult as it is to teach the reality of the spirit to some adults, especially those who "when they are learned they think they are wise" (2 Nephi 9:28). But the Lord taught that "except ye . . . become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3; see also Luke 18:17; 3 Nephi 11:37-38).

Perhaps that is because little children learn quickly things that adults are slow to comprehend. A friend told me that his young son knew all about computers, and said, "I have no idea where he gets it." I said, "Probably from his younger brother or sister."

The computer is a good illustration of our dual nature. Computers are made of metal, plastic, and glass, and can hold an astonishing amount of information-all the standard works, sets of encyclopedias, dictionaries, whole libraries, even illustrations. Press the keys, and you can select any part of what is stored and see it instantly on a screen. You can rearrange, add to, or subtract from what is stored in the computer, and can print on paper whatever you desire, even in full color. You then can hold in your hand tangible, absolute proof of what is inside that box of metal and glass and plastic.

However, should you take the computer completely apart or melt it down, you could find not one word, not one illustration-no tangible evidence that there were volumes, verses, or illustrations inside the computer. You could no more find words in the ashes of a computer than you could find the spirit in the ashes of a cremated human body.

Notwithstanding that the spirit is invisible and intangible, it is the very essence of reality. "Ye are the temple of God, and . . . the Spirit of God dwelleth in you" (1 Corinthians 3:16).

Revelation is the process of communication to the spiritual eyes and to the spiritual ears that were ours before our mortal birth. The scriptures speak of "the eyes of our understanding" (see Jeremiah 5:21; Ephesians 1:18; 2 Nephi 21:3; D&C 110:1; 138:11, 29), and of "blindness of mind" (Ether 4:15) and of heart (Deuteronomy 28:28; Ephesians 4:18; D&C 58:15). They speak of "feeling" words, rather than hearing them (1 Nephi 17:45), and of the still, small voice (1 Kings 19:12; 1 Nephi 17:45).

Get more insightful parables from President Packer in Memorable Stories and Parables.

How do I respond to, “Your church asks too much”?

Several years ago I presided over one of our missions. Two of our missionaries were teaching a fine family who had expressed a desire to be baptized; and then they suddenly cooled off. The father had learned about tithing and he canceled all further meetings with the missionaries.

Two sad elders reported to the branch president, who himself was a recent convert, that he would not have this fine family in his branch.

A few days later the branch president persuaded the elders to join him in another visit to the family. "I understand," he told the father, "that you have decided not to join the Church."

"That is correct," the father answered.

"The elders tell me that you are disturbed about tithing."

"Yes," said the father. "They had not told us about it; and when I learned of it, I said, 'Now, that's too much to ask.' Our church has never asked anything like that. We think that's just too much and we will not join."

"Did they tell you about fast offering?" the president asked.

"No," said the man. "What is that?"

"In the Church we fast for two meals each month and give the value of the meals for the help of the poor."

"They did not tell us that," the man said.

"Did they mention the building fund?"

"No, what is that?"

"In the Church we all contribute toward building chapels. If you joined the Church, you would want to participate both in labor and with money. Incidentally, we are building a new chapel here," he told him.

"Strange," he said, "that they didn't mention it."

"Did they explain the welfare program to you?"

"No," said the father. "What is that?"

"Well, we believe in helping one another. If someone is in need or ill or out of work or in trouble, we are organized to assist, and you would be expected to help.

"Did they also tell you that we have no professional clergy? All of us contribute our time, our talents, our means, and travel-all to help the work. And we're not paid for it in money."

"They didn't tell us any of that," said the father.

"Well," said the branch president, "if you are turned away by a little thing like tithing, it is obvious you're not ready for this Church. Perhaps you have made the right decision and you should not join."

As they departed, almost as an afterthought he turned and said: "Have you ever wondered why people will do all of these things willingly? I have never received a bill for tithing. No one has ever called to collect it. But we pay it-and all of the rest-and count it as a great privilege.

"If you could discover why, you would be within reach of the pearl of great price, for which the Lord said the merchant man was willing to sell all that he had so that he might obtain it.

"But," the branch president added, "it is your decision. I only hope you will pray about it."

A few days later the man appeared at the branch president's home. No, he did not want to reschedule the missionaries. That would not be necessary. He wanted to schedule the baptism of his family. They had been praying, fervently praying.

This happens every day with individuals and entire families attracted by the high standards, not repelled by them.