The written word is powerful, both to the reader and to the writer. I am blessed to be both. When I write, it helps me to take what are often swirling thoughts and organize them into a cohesive whole with beginnings, middles, and endings. That is why, for me, journal writing is such a therapeutic experience. It is one of the main reasons I write this weblog. I hope others might read it and benefit from reading my testimony, but even if they don't, I have grown my own testimony in the writing process.
When it comes to reading the Book of Mormon, there is a literal power. President Ezra Taft Benson taught the following: It is not just that the Book of Mormon teaches us truth, though it indeed does that. It is not just that the Book of Mormon bears testimony of Christ, though it indeed does that, too. But there is something more. There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into you lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called the words of life (Doctrine and Covenants 84: 85) and nowhere is that more true than it is in the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance. (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Ezra Taft Benson [2014], 141)
I bear my testimony that this is, in fact, true. When I lost my husband Carmon in 1982, I had to completely redefine who I was. Prayer, regular scripture study, and keeping journals over the years have guided me in that defining of who I am, particularly in relationship to God. There are no words that adequately explain my relationship with the scriptures. Over my lifetime, they have moved from words written on a page to words written on the fleshy tables of [my] heart. (2 Corinthians 3:3)
Lehi and his family hungered and thirsted for the scriptures, so much so that after they had traveled many days to the Valley of Lemuel, Lehi sent his four boys back to Jerusalem to purchase a family copy of the scriptures to that date which were in the possession of a distant cousin. The two older boys did not want to go, but Nephi was willing to follow the counsel of his father, for he understood as his brothers did not, that the counsel was actually coming from God. His response when asked to go back into danger to retrieve the plates of brass was this: I will go and do the thing that the Lord hath commanded for I know that the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them. (1 Nephi 3:7)
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| Finding another people who had no records |
As time passed, Lehi's family came to understand that having God's word in their possession helped them keep their language pure, the laws clear, the gospel of the coming Messiah, and their culture in tact. Many years later, when the Nephites encountered another group which had fled Jerusalem about the same time, they found that their language, religion, and culture had all deteriorated because they brought no written records with them.
We are so blessed to have the scriptures so readily available. I believe that God will hold us accountable if having them, we do not study them. Throughout history, men and women have put their lives on the line to obtain and share the scriptures. That is not required of us. What is required of us is that we feast upon the word - not just nibble or snack. We immerse ourselves in the scriptures, not primarily to get information, but to allow the Spirit penetrate our very souls and guide us to becoming what God intends us to be: true disciples of Jesus Christ.
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| Are you feasting or snacking? |
©January 2020, Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson
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