A Biscuit Metaphor: If You Are Nothing Why Are You Still Loved

If you’ve ever read the line that “man is nothing” and quietly wondered how a perfect God could possibly want you, you’re not alone. We sit with that tension and follow it all the way into a surprising place: a backyard, a tennis ball, and a dog named Biscuit.

Morgan shares a moment of personal revelation that hits with unusual clarity, and we unpack what it teaches about God’s love, our worth, and how “Hear Him” often comes through the language of our real lives. Along the way, we connect scripture and lived experience, from Moses and Samuel to modern examples of spiritual impressions, and we talk about why God communicates in ways that match our maturity and understanding. If you’ve been craving personal revelation, better prayer, or a clearer sense of God’s voice, this conversation offers a grounded framework.

We also walk through five practical lessons that flow from the Biscuit story: God keeps calling us back when we are half hearted listeners, commandments are meant for safety and happiness instead of control, obedience builds trust and leads to greater spiritual freedom line upon line, we stay alive spiritually as daily beggars relying on God for nourishment, and real discipleship includes a hunger to be close to Him. This is faith for imperfect people, including anyone trying to heal, repent, and come back to Christ again and again.

If this helped you reframe God’s love or recognize a spiritual message in your everyday moments, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it. What ordinary experience might God be using to speak to you right now?

Transcript

Welcome And Podcast Purpose

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Welcome to Hear Him Kill You with Morgan and Joel. This podcast is for those who are imperfect and rough around the edges, but are still wanting to come under Christ. Essentially, it's for everyone. So join us to get yourself out of the mental mire, find meaning in emotion, and leave bad behind. This is where we hear him to be healed.

A Question From Addiction Recovery

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Welcome back, Lil Flock. Um I gotta have a cool story for us today. So this has actually been something that's been on my mind a lot lately. It's actually been this experience served to answer a question that I've been thinking about for a really long time. Some of you might not know, but I run a dictionary addiction recovery group for um guys in my ward. And I've done this for a few years now. Um it's something that I deeply enjoy. In fact, it's my calling right now. Um and I've just seen how much good is done. And there's always this one question, and it comes from step one in the addiction recovery manual, which is actually called Healing Through the Savior now, which I think is actually a better change of title, and we can get into that another day. But um the question was essentially, even though we are nothing in the eyes of God, how does God still love us? And why does he have a reason to love us? I might be doing this question an injustice, and I because I'm just paraphrasing here. But I had this really wonderful experience where God fully answered this question for me because it had been something that had been on my mind for a while. And I do need to start because I recognize like this experience can be very unique to me. But it's interesting how God speaks to us because this actually deals with me and my dog Biscuit and how God answered this question, which is really an interesting way.

How God Speaks In Our Language

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Like, who receives revelation while playing with their dog, right? And it made me realize first and foremost, God speaks to us using the things around us that we connect to the most, which I think is a beautiful thing because I think it brings more meaning and creates this connection with God that God actually truly does know us. And and it brings me back to the scripture founded doctrine and covenants, um, 124. And it says, and we're given unto my servants in their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding. So throughout scripture and history, God has always spoke to people in different ways, depending on what will reach them, kind of like I was saying. And and like I said, he he always intentionally communicates in ways that we that will reach our hearts and our understanding. And I was thinking about like different ways throughout the scriptures where where this happened. The first one that came to mind was Moses and the burning bush, and how that was a very strange way for God to speak to Moses. And maybe we'll never fully understand why Moses needed God to speak to him in that way. Maybe it was just a miraculous nature that a flame can be a fire, but then it cannot end up being burnt at the same time. And maybe he just needed to see that miraculous nature for it to be like, yes, this is fully God. And then there's also like um Samuel in 1 Samuel in the Bible, right? Where it says, the Lord called to Samuel and he answered, hear my. And then Samuel ran or just called me. And Eli perserved the Lord had called the child, and the Lord came and stood and called as to other other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, speak, for thy servant heareth. So once again, that's a very strange way for someone to get for God to speak to them, where he's hearing a disembodied voice who he literally thinks is Eli, and he runs to him. And obviously, Eli had was in tune with the spirit and had experience to draw from to help guide Samuel in understanding this. So he's always God is always finding ways to communicate with us that fits our maturity and understanding, once again. One that has always stuck with me over the years, and one that I found extremely interesting to me. Like, I just like, why would you get like it at first it rubbed me the wrong way, but uh over time I realized it was actually it served to be one of the greatest lessons on how God speaks to us because I remember Russell M. Nelson gave a talk when he was um on my when on my mission where he was part of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He was the president of the Quorum of Apostles at the time. And he relays this story about how he did open heart surgery on Spencer W. Kimball. And it was interesting that in the during the surgery, President Nelson received a spiritual witness that uh that President Kimball was going to become the prophetic leader of the church. And I was like, why would God speak to someone during heart surgery? Like when the moment he restarts the heart, that's when the spirit entered in and bears that witness. I'm like, that's a very strange setting. But after my own experiences, I realized, what better way to speak to a heart surgeon than during heart surgery? The thing he knows and understands the most. So this is a scripture that always resonates with me when I'm thinking about like how does God speak to us? And this is what Nephi has to say about how God speaks to us. And he says, For my soul delight in plainness, for after this manner doth the Lord God work among the children of men. For the Lord God giveth light unto the understanding, for he speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding. God meets us where we are. He knows the language of our hearts and the language of our minds, and he's going to speak to us in that way. And I love that promise. I love the examples of hearing that because I think it's a beautiful thing. I think God wants to be so intimately connected with us that he's going to use our own words to speak to us. What a great way for us to know that and to come to know God too. So coming back, so now obviously, like I wanted to really emphasize that God speaks to us because this experience I'm going to relay about biscuit is super important to me. And I recognize I think biscuit is the language of my heart. And that's what God was telling me. Because anybody that knows me knows how much I love my dog. I talk about him constantly. He takes up a significant chunk of my time because we go on three or four walks a day. And if anyone knows biscuit, he is one of the most loving, cuddly dogs out there. And so I'm gonna set that aside for a second, and then I'm going to tell you what my question

Moses And The Problem Of Nothingness

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is. And it it comes from a scripture in the Pearl of Great Price, also coming back to Moses. And basically, this is after the a vision with God, Moses realizes something very profound. And he says, But now mine own eyes have beheld God, but not my natural, but my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld, for I should have with withered and died in his presence, but his glory was upon me, and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him, and now for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed. And that's where this question arose was how can God love us when we are nothing? Because Moses right here says he never had supposed that man was nothing compared to God, but right around that time, God also tells him, You are my work in my glory, meaning you provide me the utmost love in my life. How can both be true? Like, why would a God condescend to love beings that are nothing compared to him? I just don't think it my it's hard for me to fathom that such a powerful and glorious being would want to love us, even make us, and try to make us like him. Because I think in the world, and when we when we're interacting with imperfect beings, like it almost feels like the best of the best, the elite of our societies, do not want to love us, nor do they want us to become like them. And so I think we're all trying to do that or get to that point where we want goodness for others innately and naturally, and we're trying to overcome the natural man, but there isn't a lot of examples in our day-to-day lives where the best of the best try to make the worst of the worst like them and love them. So the question is if we are so small compared to God, why does he love us so much? So now to the story of Biscuit.

Fetch With Biscuit Becomes Revelation

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So a few, um, this was about last week, I was in the backyard playing fetch with biscuit. And this is how I know this was an answer from God. Because I was throwing the ball and he would run and go get it. And it was just a great day. Like it it was really warm out for for oh for the first time in a while. And I remember just thinking, like, this is a great day, and I love this dog. Like, this dog is kind of my world. Like, and there was a spiritual impression that entered in where the the like the words came to mind, and it was like God saying, and that's how I love you. And I was like, I got emotional, like I felt emotions that I know were associated with feeling the spirit. And I sat there, I was like, You love me like how I love my dog. At first I was like taken aback, but at the same time, I knew how much I loved that dog, how much I loved biscuit. And then for God to say, I love you like that and more. And I sat there, I was like, and I and then this, then my mind went to this question if I'm so small compared to God, why does he love me so much? And I reflected and I sat there, I was like, biscuit is literally nothing compared to me. Biscuit would perish and die without me, to be clear. Like, biscuit does not have a survival instinct in his whole body. And biscuit cannot pay bills, he cannot do chores, he cannot even talk to me as much as I think he tries to. In fact, biscuit creates more work for me. I have to walk him, I have to pick up his poop, I have to brush him, I have to cut his hair, I have to constantly vacuum and clean my couch of his sh because he sheds. He's a shedding dog. Heaven forbid, I probably made the wrong decision. Getting that, but I still love him. And in fact, I love him deeply, and I tell people all the time, why did I do this to myself? Why did I allow this dog into my heart? Because one day, biscuit will go away. I will no longer have biscuit, and that will hurt a lot. So, compared to a human, a dog contributes almost nothing to my life. Yet, love still exists. So, if humans can love something that gives them little in return, how much more does God love his children because he is a perfect being with perfect love? And as I continued to think on this lesson, this like comparison, like it got deeper

God Keeps Calling Half Listeners

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and deeper. I realized. I then my mind then went to how much like biscuit is a half-hearted listener. Like, once Biscuit sees a dog, sees a little kid, catches a smell that he wants to sniff, all brain power goes out the window. Biscuit becomes the epitome of an airhead. And he'll actually like biscuit's well behaved most of the time, except in those situations, and he'll ignore my commands. And I will call out to him. I will call multiple times until he finally comes back. And I sat there and I realized, man, I am a half-hearted listener too. God never stops calling me. And I know this for a fact because there have been multiple times where I've been ignoring him, distracted by something in my life. And God kept calling and calling until I was finally ready to come back. And I sat there, I was like, you know, I've been there where like biscuits is not listening to me, and I keep calling to him. I keep calling after him to return. And this just blew my mind. I was like, I love this dog so much that I, when if Biscuit's not coming back and he's making me frustrated, I still don't stop calling for him. I don't just like get up, get in my car and drive away or go inside and leave him out there. I don't. And this this lesson reminded me of a scripture in Jacob 6.4, and it says, How merciful is our God unto us, for he remembereth the house of Israel, both roots and branches, and he stretches forth his hands unto them all the day long, and they are stiff-necked and a gainsaying people. But as many as will not harden their hearts shall be saved in the kingdom of God. God continues to call unto us, even when we're slow to listen, even when we're stiff-necked and gainsaying people. As long as we don't harden our hearts, he will call after us all the day long. I love that phrasing all the day long. Doesn't matter if it's in the morning or if it's late at night, it doesn't matter if we're in our the good parts of our life or the bad parts of life. He is consistent. He calls after us all the day long. That is how God loves

Commands As Safety And Joy

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us. Lesson two, I've had to like work with Biscuit to train him to do things. Like I've had to train him to go to his kennel, to go to his bed, to sit, to roll over. My proudest one I've done, make him roll over. But he knows so many commands. And all this was built through repetition, patience, and guidance. But the thing is, I didn't teach Biscuit these commands to just give him control or to control him. They were about helping him live safely and happily. It's actually really interesting. There's a story that, like, or not a story, there's a there's a study where if you just give dog a treat, they don't necessarily experience that much emotion with that treat. They enjoy it, they like it, great. However, if a dog learns a command and you give them a treat, and I'd have to go back and tell you why this happened, but they feel more satisfaction and greater happiness. And it made me realize that that's how God also works with us. And this reminded me of this scripture in Mosiah 241. And moreover, I would desire that you should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual. And if they behold, and if they hold out faithful to the end, they are received into heaven. And I love that. God does not give us commands, commandments to control us. He gives us commandments so that we live safely and happily, that we find satisfaction and fulfillment in our life. And when we receive the treat, the blessing from God, it's God's way of loving us because we are loving him through the commandments. And I will tell you right now, when Biscuit listens to my commands, it makes me feel loved. He is paying attention to me. He here's this nothing, here's this nothingness dog that can do no good for me or help me in no way. Yet when I teach him things and he wants to listen to me, for some reason he makes me feel loved. How backward is that? Lesson

Obedience Builds Trust And Freedom

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three. Over the years since having biscuit, I've wanted to teach biscuit to be better on a leash. He actually tends to tug and pull at the leash a lot more than I would like, and we're we're working on that. That's the next thing I'm trying to teach him is how to be well behaved on a leash. And eventually I have one day I'd like to get him to be off leash and listen to me. And I've watched my friend Gabe and his dog Fergie. Love Fergie. Fergie is like insane. Love her to death, though. And so does Gabe. Gabe loves her to death. But Gabe has done a really good job of teaching Fergie to be off leash. And the way uh basically the way you teach a dog to be off leash is you have to start little by little. When you first get a puppy, you do not trust that puppy to stay near you and not run off. So you start with the leash. You start by giving them treats for not tugging on the leash, which I need to go back and reteach basket. But then you get a beeper caller. Where if they start to go too far, you beep it, you call them back, you give them a treat. You're conditioning them for their own good. Little by little, there's a trust exchange. You start to trust the dog more not to run off. You give them more and more freedom over time because you trust that they will come back at your command. You trust them to walk by themselves on their own and use judgment to stay in the right path, to stay on the sidewalk and not run into the street. You're still there to call them and to call after them when they get too close to danger. And that's what God does with us. God, our relationship with God is a trust exchange. Because with greater obedience comes greater freedom, because he trusts us to walk on our own and stay in the right path. And it reminded me of this scripture in 2 Nephi 28, 30. For behold, thus saith the Lord, I will give unto the children of men, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. And blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom. God, from the beginning of our lives to the end of our lives, is teaching us this leash principle. We had to start out being on leash. Maybe that's our baptismal covenant. And as there is greater and greater trust exchanged, we started making more and more serious covenants. For men, it's receiving the priesthood. For men and women, it's going to get their initiatories done and their endowments. And eventually the ultimate covenant of being sealed to someone else with Christ. My sister is on a mission right now, and I kind of talked to her about this principle. She was talking about how like she's like, I'm not feeling the spirit as much. And funny enough, I actually asked this question to my own mission president on my mission, where I was like, I just don't feel the spirit as strong. I don't get as emotional anymore. And this principle was taught to me by President Sweeney. As we become, as we learn line upon line, precept upon precept, as we lend ear to his counsel and hearken to those precepts, we learn wisdom. God does not want sycophants walking around him, yes men. He does not want people to just do his bidding all the time. He does want us to follow the commandments in the gospel, but he doesn't want it to do it because that's what he wants. He wants us to develop that own our own desire and walk in our own ways, be anxiously engaged in a good cause. That's why he teaches us this leash principle, where little by little he lets us off the leash. And when we get too close to danger, he calls us back. And the reason why this compares to what my sister and my mission president are talking about and that I experienced is as we learn greater wisdom, God doesn't need to necessarily constantly be by our side to tell us to do every little good thing. Once we desire to do good, and we are ancient looking to do good of our own volition and our own accord, why would God need to constantly be reminding us? He trusts us to walk on our own. This is something that I think we could all do better with. Seek good things and go after it. You don't need always to be directed in all things. Why would you? God is like, that's a good thing, do it. And I will direct you if you get off course. Lesson four daily beggars.

Becoming Daily Beggars Before God

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Best biscuit cannot feed himself, right? Or water himself. Every single day he depends on me for food and water. In fact, he'll let me know that when he's out of water or when he's out of food. And it made me realize that when he's hungry, he's sitting by his bowl. He's staring at me. If I'm eating my own food, he is locked on. He's a great beggar. He follows me around, whining and huffing until he gets what reminding me I need to feed him. In a very real way, biscuit is a daily beggar, just like how we're daily beggars at the hand of God. Because biscuit's survival completely depends on someone else providing this nourishment. The same principle applies to us spiritually. We are meant to become humble daily beggars before God. Not in a negative sense, but in recognition that our spiritual strength, our forgiveness, our peace, our guidance all comes from him. Just like biscuit, who waits by his bowl, we come unto God regularly for that nourishment. The way we get that nourishment is we pray, we study the scriptures, seek guidance, repentance, listen for spiritual impressions. And just like in Mosiah, where King Benjamin says, For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same being, even God, for all the substance we have? Every good thing ultimately comes from God. And that's why, just like Nephi said, feast upon the words of Christ. For behold, the words of Christ will tell you all the things that what ye should do. God provides spiritual nourishment, provides nourishment freely, but we cannot, we must come to receive it. All right. So now time for lesson

Do You Want God Near You

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five. So for anybody that's listening who's ever met Biscuit, any friends of mine out there, one thing everyone will first realize when meeting biscuit too, is Biscuit's greatest desire in his whole life is simply to just be near you. And this is something I've learned over the last three years of having biscuit is no matter where I'm at, no matter where anybody's at, he wants to be close to them. Like literally, biscuit thinks everyone's like his best friend. We can't go on a walk without him trying to walk up to every single stranger and snip them and try to get them to pet him. And if he sees a dog or any little kid, he wants to go say hi immediately. Even now, he knows that I'm talking about him and he wants to make an appearance. So we love biscuit. And he just always wants to be petted and covered. At all times. And it's also really interesting because he also gets extremely sad when you go to leave. He'll like mope, he'll stare after you longingly. If I've left him alone too long during a day, he actually will bark until I come home, which my neighbors have not loved at some points. So it's clear that Biscuit has a little bit of separation anxiety. And when however, whenever you come back to him, like after even being like a gone 15, even 30 minutes, loses his mind with excitement. He cannot contain himself with the excitement. He's just like a ball of pure joy every time you come home. Like I don't think I would have trade this for the world. It was actually one of my favorite things about Biscuit. But also he he just like whines. Like he does this little happy whine, happy cry when you get home. And he's just like, he's not barking. It's just like a I don't know how to explain it. It's like I've never seen mini dogs do this, but you think he's like super sad. But no, he's like super excited. He's whining all over the place. And then he does this little grunt, this happy grunt when you start when he rolls up on his back and you you pet his stomach. And as I thought about this as well, is we could learn a lot of things from biscuit. And it made me realize, and it's like I have this question that do we desire closeness with God the same way? Do we want to sit next to God at all times and be in whatever room he's in? Do are we so stubborn and so attached to God that when we feel like we can't fill him in our lives, do we get sad? And do we wait longingly with that righteous anxiety for him to come back? And when he does show himself onto us, when he does return onto us, or we return onto him, because I don't think God is ever too far away. Sometimes I think the perception that he's left is is a real, the real reality. But when we do feel God's presence once again in our lives, do we lose our mind with excitement? Do we cry out to God and just thank him for being there with us? Because ideally, our hearts should always want to be near him. We should always want to feel his presence. We should always seek him continually. I just think this is a super, super important thing I've realized with Biscuit that even in our nothingness, we can always give ourselves to him. And it's the only thing that God wants from us. He wants us to choose him again and again. Just like how a dog never wants to be far from you. Like even now, Biscuit is sitting below my feet, wanting me to pet him. Are we trying to do that as well? And this reminds me of uh of Matthew 22, 37, and it says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Loving God truly and fully is the greatest commandment we can ever

Final Takeaways And Invitation

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learn. So I guess in wrapping up, the three things I learned from this is one, God speaks to us personally. He through experiences, through impressions, through scripture, through everyday moments. Two, the second thing I learned, even though we are very small compared to God, we are practically nothing and compared to him and our ability, he still values us deeply. The last thing I've learned is even in our nothingness, he has infinite patience to continually call out to us and train us, develop our us, strengthen us, and teach us, even if we're slow to respond. So just like I would never stop calling for biscuits and wanting him to be close, God will never stop calling for us. So I encourage you guys all, as you go about your daily lives, to whoever listens to this, God might already be speaking to you in your lives. What everyday experiences are you having right now that might carry spiritual lessons? Sometimes the most powerful spiritually lessons don't come from burning bushes. Sometimes they come from something as simple as being with biscuit. So with that said, Little Flock, remember, despair not, build upon the rock, do good, and always hear him.