Reading The Book of Mormon

At the end of my last semester in school, I was struggling to focus and put my best effort into my papers and finals. I felt like I was in a fog and I couldn't get myself to concentrate. Finally, I asked my husband for a Priesthood Blessing.

However, instead of being given the blessing to focus and concentrate immediately from the blessing, I was chastised in that blessing. I was, essentially, scolded for not doing my personal scripture study. I was promised that I would be able to have the energy, focus, and drive for school that I needed on the condition that I did my personal scripture study first.

The next morning, I got up early, went to the couch, and read my scriptures until Andrew's alarm went off (the one that I used to be getting up to). For the first time in a couple of weeks, I was alert, energetic, and had the ability to concentrate and work on my paper. I knew then and I know now that that was a direct result of my obedience to the chastisement and council that I received in that blessing.

This is just one of the many examples that I have had in my life that confirms to me that not only is The Book of Mormon the word of God, but that God blesses us when we are in them daily and studying from them.

In 1st Nephi 1:8-15, Lehi has a vision where the heavens open and he sees God sitting on His throne, surrounded by angels. Then, One descends from heaven, followed by twelve others, and gives Lehi a book, and asks him to read. As he is reading, he is filled with the Spirit of the Lord, and after he is done reading he exclaims praises unto the Lord, and his soul rejoices and his heart is filled because of the things he has seen.

Now, the important part that I want to get at is in verses 11-12. Lehi is given a book and bade to read. Likewise, we have received The Book of Mormon in our day, and God had communicated to us through His prophets that He wants us to study it. When we read The Book of Mormon, we too can be filled with the Spirit of the Lord. This is just one of the many blessings we have been promised if we study from The Book of Mormon.

President Ezra Taft Benson taught that “There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your 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 straight and narrow path. The scriptures are called “the words of life”, and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance. These promises – increased love in the home, greater respect between parent and child, increased spirituality and righteousness – these are not idle promises, but exactly what the Prophet Joseph Smith meant when he said the Book of Mormon will help us draw nearer to God.”

I testify that these promises are real, and that God keeps His promises to His children. I know that The Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that Joseph Smith acted as an instrument in The Lord's hands in helping to bring The Book of Mormon forth to us in these latter-days through his translation of the records. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that President Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet on the earth today. I urge you to read The Book of Mormon, and to receive for yourself the blessings promised to you by God if you will study with a sincere heart, with real intent, and with faith in Christ. I also urge you to take Moroni up on his promise found in Moroni 10:3-5, that after reading The Book of Mormon, that "if ye shall [pray] with a sincere heart, with real intent, and with faith in Christ, [God] will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost."

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, my Savior and Redeemer. Amen.

Our Savior’s Love

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” (Robert Browning)

If we applied that quote to our Savior, and tried counting His love for us, I think that mathematically the number of ways He loves us would look something like this: (-∞,∞). However, something about infinite love is ungraspable to us. Everything in this life that we know of has a beginning and an end. How, then, can we even begin to comprehend a truly infinite love? I don’t know that we fully can in this life.

Our Savior has done more for us than any person has ever done for us. He prays for us, heals us, strengthens us, guides us, and He even Atoned for us. He will stand with us at the Judgment Seat, pleading to the Father for us. However, He doesn’t give us everything that we want because He loves us. He gives us trials, tests us, and reprimands us so that we are most benefitted in this life by His love. He knows what is best for us and because He wants us to be happy He makes us learn. That is true love.

In the book of John, I discovered a chapter while studying that I refer to as “The Prayer of the Savior.” As I was reading the chapter, in which Jesus begins praying, I realized that many of the verses are of Him praying for US! For YOU and ME!

“I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine . . . I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” – (John 17:9, 15-19)

It was for us individually that He suffered in the Garden and then hung on the cross as they crucified Him. It was for us that He rose again and conquered death three days after He had given up His spirit. He gave us the gift of The Atonement so that we could be able to be resurrected and so that mercy and justice could both be mollified at the judgment seat. The Atonement allows us to be elevated from the Fall, so that we can return again to our Father in Heaven someday. We could not pay that price alone.

It also amazes me to see how He sees us. Here is this great and powerful man, God’s Only Begotten Son, our Redeemer, a God, and He sees us not as below Him, but as His brothers, sisters, children, and as His friends.

 “And again I say unto you, my friends, for from henceforth I shall call you friends, it is expedient that I give unto you this commandment that ye become even as my friends in days when I was with them traveling to preach the gospel in my power;” – (Doctrine and Covenants 84:77)

Short of romantic interest, our Savior’s love covers every form of love possible. He truly loves us with the most pure form of love that has ever existed.

“But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever, and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
Wherefore, my beloved bretheren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ, that ye may become the sons of God that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.”
 – (Moroni 7:47-48)

I remember once, as a young child, kneeling in prayer before I got into my bed so that I could sleep. To this day, I do not remember any of the words spoken that night. I do, however, remember what came after. Before climbing into my bed that night, I waited. Suddenly a warmth that I have never felt before filled me. Heaven had never felt closer than it did at that moment. A love too great to fill my small frame filled the room, and I knew without a single doubt that my Father in Heaven and my Savior both loved me, were proud of me and the path I was headed down, and that They stood by me. I am sure that the love I felt was just a fraction of Their love for me, for if I had felt any more, I would have had to change states, or be transfigured, so that I would not be consumed by the warmth I felt. I knelt there for longer than I had ever before after a prayer, basking in the love and warmth my Savior proffered me.

We, as Children of God, are of infinite worth to our Savior (D&C 18:10) and I know that He loves us. He stands with His arms outstretched to us, waiting to receive us if we but will open our hearts to Him and turn to Him.

I testify of these things in the name of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, amen.