Experimenting on the Word

Mark was waiting up for me, but I got carried away with entering a contest (link on cjane's blog, below right) and he fell asleep. I felt like I had failed in some way, but then I chose not to worry about it. That's right...I'm able to choose that. Isn't that nifty? It's a trick I learned in Alma 32, where he tells us to experiment with good things and see what they are like, nurture them if they enlarge our soul, and continue in that way till we can harvest the fruit. I know, sounds simple and you've heard or read it before; what caught me this time is the word "experiment." A couple of weeks ago, I woke up with that word on my mind. Then I kept opening the scriptures to that part, and all the talks, lessons, and songs in church that day kept referring to it. So I tried "experimenting" instead of feeling like I was doing something against my will - it was my own experiment! And I tried thinking in ways that I usually don't, just to see what it was like. I have to say, in all the little areas of thought and feeling that I've tried this, it has worked remarkably well for me. I don't feel pressure. I just think, "I usually think this way, so why not try something different?" I do this with thoughts and behaviors that haven't been serving me very well, but that I stubbornly cling to. Part of my trouble has been fear of being someone else, somehow Not Me. Fear of change. But Experiment? That sounds like a little test run, just to satisfy my curiosity. I can handle that. Clearly, this is blessing my life. Now I wonder just who it was that whispered that word in my ear?