The Constant Gardener

Building a strong testimony is just like growing a garden, we can't force it.

Like Teancum did! Alma 52:6 "But he kept his men round about, as if making preparations for war; yea, and truly he was preparing to defend himself against them, by ^acasting up walls round about and preparing places of resort."

Basically like going to the gym and getting ripped it takes focus and time.

And if you stop going to the gym? (I stopped going to the gym for a week and a half and I lost 9 lbs. Of muscle.)

Here's a positively down to earth quote:

I believe many of us unknowingly accept a faulty assumption about the Lord’s pattern. And this faulty assumption then produces erroneous expectations about how we receive spiritual knowledge. And that faulty assumption and our misinformed expectations ultimately hinder our ability to recognize and respond to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Let me suggest that many of us typically assume we will receive an answer or a prompting to our earnest prayers and pleadings. And we also frequently expect that such an answer or a prompting will come immediately and all at once. Thus, we tend to believe the Lord will give us A BIG ANSWER QUICKLY AND ALL AT ONE TIME. However, the pattern repeatedly described in the scriptures suggests we receive “line upon line, precept upon precept,” or in other words, many small answers over a period of time. Recognizing and understanding this pattern is an important key to obtaining inspiration and help from the Holy Ghost.

Now, we all acknowledge that receiving a big answer quickly and all at once is possible and, in fact, does occur in some exceptional circumstances. Perhaps we give overmuch emphasis to the miraculous experiences of Joseph in the Sacred Grove, of Paul on the road to Damascus, and of Alma the Younger. If our personal experiences fall short of these well-known and spiritually dramatic examples, then perhaps we believe something is wrong with or lacking in us. I am suggesting that the particular spiritual process evidenced in these three examples with Joseph, Paul, and Alma is more rare than it is routine, more the exception than the rule.

Ref: Elder Bednar

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/new-era/2010/09/line-upon-line-precept-upon-precept-2-nephi-28-30?lang=eng