You know I'm a Mormon, but do you know why?

It’s hard to believe nearly two years have passed since I wrote the column, “Author Jason Wright confesses, 'I am a Mormon.’ ” To this day, it remains one of my favorites.

The piece was a public realization that I’d spent too long simply waiting for people to ask me my religion, rather than volunteering it as a major component of who I am and where I come from. For years I treaded lightly around religion because the majority of my readers are members of other faiths. It’s ironic that in my efforts to avoid offending people over differing religious beliefs, I was offending the God we share in common.

I'm occasionally asked about that column, and it remains one of the most read in my online archives. I’m grateful that so many of you have emailed your support and shared encouraging, inspirational anecdotes. But one recent note stands out among the others.

A woman wrote: “Sir, you’ve told us you’re a Mormon. But you didn’t tell us why.”

She’s right. I took such care apologizing for not being more open about being a Mormon that I gave little thought to explaining why I’m a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I'm glad she asked.

Simply put, I am a Mormon because over a long period of time, and after many accumulating spiritual experiences, I have come to my own understanding that the faith is true.

I like to think of my personal faith as a lengthy, never-ending manuscript. A single page, on its own, probably isn't of great significance. But over the course of weeks, months and even years, those individual pages multiply with my hard work and become something weighty and valuable.

This is how my testimony has grown. It didn’t happen overnight in a singular burst of revelation from the Holy Ghost or after a weekend of non-stop reading in the scriptures. My faith has grown like that manuscript, through countless prayers and moments of worship and service. Together they’ve accumulated into something beautiful that I enjoy sharing with those around me.

I am a Mormon, in part, because it is the faith of my fathers. It is among the greatest blessings of my life to have been born into a good Christian family with a long heritage of worthy membership in the church.