As a kid two fears stand out: being caught in a fire overnight because we lived on the second floor of our apartment building and had only one exit. The other, of course, was quicksand. As a grown-up my fear is just as far-fetched but still just as real to me: being called to the Gen RS presidency and being in an interview on live tv and someone asking me about a BOM story or character I should know about…
I’m in no way an expert on the Book of Mormon or a scriptorian by any stretch. Although I have to admit I want to be. I don’t know the story lines well at all, I get everyone mixed up, I mostly like to underline quotes I like and I make smiley faces and frowny faces to help me know who’s good and who’s bad. I’ve only done the Iron Man once in my life, just to be obedient and to see if I could.
I have no idea how many times I’ve read it, but I probably started sometime when I was in YW. I’m just regular. I have times in the year when I’m really good at this and am excited about what I’m learning because I find new symbolism and applications. Other times I feel like I hardly make the time, I’m running from the second I wake up, and it’s the last thing I do before I collapse at night. But I know we’re blessed as a family simply by trying again and again.
So I guess my only real qualification is that I know it’s true, I know it’s inspired, that it is all the prophets say it is, that it really is to help us with today’s issues. I know that it blesses my family and my home and my life. I know I feel the Spirit when I read it and I get answers when I look for them. And nothing has helped me know and get closer to my Savior than the Book of Mormon.
Today I want to share a few lessons that I’ve learned from reading the Book of Mormon over the years and then I’ll end with some thoughts from a couple of our young friends.
—The first lesson I’ve learned is that we need it constantly, daily, regardless of what that looks like. There’s something compelling about it. It draws us in. If we invest just a few minutes, I know other parts of our day will work out. Start small. Start anywhere. Just look up a topic in the back. Read one verse and all the cross references for it. Start with a question. Ask Heavenly Father for creative ways to find time. Tell Him you want to but you just can’t seem to make it happen. He will absolutely help you, but you also have to do it when He gives you a little thought like, “This would be a good time to read.” :) Heavenly Father never asks us to do something without blessing us with so much more than we sacrificed. You’ll remember what Elders Scott and Person have told us in conference:
“Don’t yield to Satan’s lie that you don’t have time to study the scriptures. Choose to take time to study them. Feasting on the word of God each day is more important than sleep, school, work, television shows, video games, or social media. You may need to reorganize your priorities to provide time for the study of the word of God. If so, do it!” (Elder Scott)
“Search the Book of Mormon and the counsel of the prophets every day, every day, every day! It’s the key to spiritual survival and avoiding deception. Without it we are spiritually lost.” (Elder Pearson)
For me it doesn’t take long to get off track. But the inverse is also true and reading the Book of Mormon is the quickest way to get back. Heavenly Father wants to talk to us, we need His spirit so much. This is the way to do it and I know that when we just take a few minutes, immediately the spirit comes and we remember again how much we need it.
—Another lesson I’ve seen over and over in the Book of Mormon and in life today is how the same circumstances can affect people so differently. War throughout time is a prime example of the choice in attitude can affect us. Compare 50s BC Nephites and Lamanites with 1940s AD concentration camp survivor, Viktor Frankl: “But behold because of the exceedingly great length of the war…many had become hardened… and many were softened because of their afflictions.” (Alma 62:41) “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - the ability to chose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances.” Someone who lost a spouse or a parent might become bitter and spiteful and pull away from the church and the rest of the family, mad at God. But, like the Nephites [who] “were not slow to remember the Lord their God in this their time of affliction,” we all know people who have used the experience to cling even tighter to their families and the gospel, to draw closer to God, to use the atonement for comfort.
Where else would we go? I remember gathering the kids around when my dad died last summer. I have no idea why it wasn’t hard, but all I felt was tons of peace. We just told them this is why we do everything we do in the gospel. So we can be together as families again. It was a real testimony to me that the promise in the Book of Mormon is real, that when we turn our hearts to Christ and look to him for comfort, he really is available and willing to strengthen and support us. But it’s up to us, he lets us choose.
—Another lesson I’ve been learning over the years is to take the counsel in Alma 34 to pray over our flocks and fields literally. To include him in all parts of our life, to be specific when we pray. It just seems the older I get the more I realize how much wisdom there is in being humble enough to ask for help. I need to tell myself Heavenly Father knows everything. He knows everyone’s hearts. He knows our circumstances. He knows my schedule and intentions and what I want. He helps me sort through all sorts of things. Just this past week I prayed whether to buy a piano we were considering. The thought came to me, “What do you want to do?” I loved that answer because it wasn’t a right or wrong, just permission to do either one. I’ve been praying over a relationship with a friend for years now. With no resolution that I know of. But I feel so good when I talk to Him about it. I’ve prayed for a chance to talk to the kids about something that’s on my mind. It’s been amazing how sometimes the exact topic just seems to come up naturally at dinner. I feel comfortable sharing with him how heavy the world feels and how worried I am about our family. I ask him to help me find time for the temple. And we’ve prayed over math assignments. I guess I just figure he wouldn’t have had Mormon include those verses if he wasn’t serious about it. I know he cares about everything about my life because of them.
—Another thing I’ve learned is that Heavenly Father and Christ are definitely concerned about each of us personally. What makes this so real to me is when Christ visits the Nephites and he had them touch his nailprints, “and this they did do, going forth one by one until they had all gone forth, and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands.” (3 Nephi 11:15) We are more than a collective body, a church. We are separate and distinct children of God with individual needs and problems, and he knows exactly how to help us personally.
—Another thing I’ve learned is to be wise with my resources, especially my time and energy. “And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order. It is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength.” “They did all labor, every man according to his strength” (Mosiah 4:27 and Alma 1:26). I have really clung to this counsel over the years, but especially starting when our family was much younger. Most of you have no idea what our life looked like a few years back when we had 5 kids under 8, no family in town, Todd in the bishopric and on-call all the time. We were just starting out so money was tight. The house and yard and our dogs and litters of puppies needed tons of work. I felt so inept and overwhelmed. Life seemed a little chaotic. But because of these verses I’ve learned to let most things go. I don’t feel guilty if I’m making little headway on my list as long as the important things are getting done. Life is a million times easier now, so I’m able to do more at this stage. We all have different energy levels, strengths, and circumstances. It’s such a comfort to know he will help us navigate all this since He knows us perfectly. We just need to be wise and include him.
—Another comforting lesson I’m learning is that Christ can heal us. I love his interaction with the Nephites, “Have ye any that are are sick among you…or afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them.” I’ve certainly felt his strength as I’ve been healed physically, but it’s usually more spiritually and emotionally that I need his healing hand. He’s absolutely come through for me when I’ve turned my broken heart over to him. I don’t understand how it works, but when I finally get desperate enough and give up whatever I’m holding on to, I feel lighter, calmer, peaceful, like it will all be handled. I feel the big hole closing up. I feel love for the people I’d been struggling with. I feel softer, like my heart is literally being healed.
—These are all examples of the most poignant lesson I’m learning from the Book of Mormon: that Christ is always the answer. That Christ’s life and atonement are perfect. I love how I feel His love all over the Book of Mormon. “But behold, I did cry unto him and I did find peace to my soul” (Alma 38:8). The Book of Mormon turns me to Christ. I’ve learned from reading the Book of Mormon that I can always count on Him, that He is the one person who will never, ever, ever let me down. I know I can be better by following Him and trying to love like He showed us. I trust Him.
—My last and one of my favorite lessons actually takes us back to the very first lesson I shared with you, “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37:6-7). Every prayer we say as a family and every dinner we eat together, every time we try to be nice instead of mean, every verse of scripture we read, all the times we sit up late with our kids who want to talk, all the times we’re calm when we wanted to scream, all the times we try to be a good home or visiting teacher, all the times we share our imperfect talents, it all adds up. I love this confirmation and this reminder by President Packer: “Our lives are made up of thousands of everyday choices. Over the years these little choices will be bundled together and show clearly what we value.”
That applies to the priority we give the Book of Mormon in our lives. I know we all have a million things we need and want to get to. But the amazing part is that by making the small effort every day to read even for a few minutes, you’ll see how much more you’ll be able to get done. You will feel lighter and happier, more calm and patient, more clear-headed and loving. It’s a small choice but a great investment. And nothing will help us feel closer to Christ than reading the Book of Mormon.
II. Testimonies and experiences from some of our young friends:
It’s been neat seeing Callum figure out how the scriptures can help him. When he was younger and sleeping upstairs, his room had huge windows and he was nervous about the storms and the wind. He had a hard time feeling safe with how loud it was and of course because we’ve had a couple of close calls with tornados a few years back. We tried everything to help him feel more comfortable and peaceful, saying prayers, tucking him in, reasoning with him, explaining how strong the house was. We were just inches away in our own room, we could hear each other breathing, but nothing seemed to soothe his anxieties. Until we started reading the Book of Mormon with him at bedtime. Ever since then he just knows that’s what will help. He told me, “It helps me sleep better. I sleep deeper. I have happier dreams.” I asked a couple others at breakfast about them reading before bed and one said, “I can’t fall asleep without reading it.” And another said, “It helps me not have any bad dreams. It makes me feel good and happy.”
From a few young friends we know:
Spiritual thought time. This week I would just like to give my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I know that it is true. It has blessed my life and especially my mission. There is so much in it that is perfectly applicable to our lives and that helps us become better. I know that it was translated by the prophet Joseph Smith, and because I know that this book is true, I know that this church is true, and that God loves us. It is a beautiful thing to know that, and I know that others can find this out for themselves as well. This book, and this gospel brings happiness. It is the only way to happiness.
In the mission we´re reading from cover to cover once every six months, and it´s been really good for me. One of the worst feelings I´ve had in the mission was about 2 months ago, when my backpack was stolen...with my marked scriptures and everything else. Even so, I´ve started over with marking my scriptures and I´ve found many new things. More than anything, I´ve found it to be true that as we have a habit of truly sincerely studying the Book of Mormon, we find the answers to the questions that come up in normal life. When the doubt or question comes, we already know the answer because it was in the parts we read in our studies of the days before.
I'm trying to gain a testimony, I'm kind of approaching it how an investigator would I guess, starting at the beginning of the Book of Mormon and praying after each time but I still haven't gotten an answer. And I want to believe it and I know that I have felt something on occasion, but I don't know that it was because of the gospel or just a cool story or something. So I'm trying, but it's slow. And that's how the prophets say a testimony will come. But I'm working on it. I obviously want all of it to be true. if it is, it is an amazing plan, and really all depends on the truthfulness of just two things; that God is real, and that the Book of Mormon is true. And so those are the two things i want to believe more than anything.
I loved getting that email because it’s real, someone who admits he doesn’t really know. I’m ok with that. Because I think we all go through that to some degree. Wondering if all this is real or if we’re being taken, an interesting story but hardly plausible. And so I think he is spot on. The best way to know if everything else is to read the Book of Mormon. The best way to remember that you know it’s true is to go back. The best way to help your family and our ward and yourself is to read from the Book of Mormon. Every day, every day, every day.
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