Studying

When I finished the Book of Mormon I decided to start over but take my time on it. Sometimes during Hannah's naps I will get on the computer and go to LDS.org and read my scriptures on there. As I was getting on today I saw an option called Study Helps. I figured hey why not? I clicked and there is an option called Guide to the Scriptures. In here you can click on a letter and look for a topic. I clicked on Patience and the first thing I read was this,

"Calm endurance; the ability to endure affliction, insult, or injury without complaint or retaliation."

Then it continues on with a bunch of scriptures all about patience. You can click on show references and it has other words that you can click and go to.

One of the scriptures I read while under the topic Patience was D&C 67:13

"Ye are not able to abide the presence of God now, neither the ministering of angels; wherefore, ^acontinue in patience until ye are ^bperfected."

What a huge roll patience has in our lives. I know I am not perfect when it comes to patience, but I have made an effort to continue to get better.

I am so grateful for all the resources we have to become closer to our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ. Also to make us stronger and better in our lives. We are very lucky to have Prophet Thomas S. Monson as our Prophet to lead and guide us through this world as the Lord would have him do. He is a true Prophet and loves each of us dearly. I know the Book of Mormon is true, and we can learn so much from the scriptures if we take the time to study and learn from them. Which it is so neat that we have resources such as this one on the LDS.org website to help us with that. I love the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and I am very happy to be a member of the true church!

Faith, Hope and Charity

For my continued study of the Book of Mormon I decided to take a totally different approach than I've taken the last three months. I had been trying to read the entire book fairly quickly, about six pages a day, underlining verses that stood out, finishing it in 90 days. It was very rewarding and gave me a great perspective of the chronology and story of the book. My new approach is to take some time and ponder and cross reference just a few verses a day selected from the ones I underlined. And I'm starting in Moroni chapter 10 and working my way back to the beginning.

There's a lot of talk in the last few chapters of the Book of Mormon about faith, hope and charity. I've learned that to have faith means to truly believe that the Lord will come through for us and answer our righteous desires - whether it has to do with challenges our kids are having, problems we are having - just having complete and total confidence in Him and His promises.

Regarding hope, I've learned that if we have faith, then we can hope for better things to come, and that if we don't have that hope we are likely in despair and despair cometh because of iniquity.

And I've learned that charity is the purest, noblest kind of love there is and if we don't feel it we should pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart that we may be filled with this love.

I'm working on increasing my faith by cultivating that attitude of total trust and confidence in the Lord and increasing my charity by praying for it with all energy of heart.

Confidence in the Lord

I didn't want to start over from the beginning of the Book of Mormon right now so I just got out a CD from the middle the other day and started listening to it. I ended up in Alma listening to the story of Ammon and Lamoni. After Lamoni's conversion, Ammon told Lamoni that he had to go to the land of Middoni to rescue his brethren who were in prison. When Lamoni asked Ammon how he know his brethren were in prison, Ammon responded, "No one hath told me, save it be God." I thought about how spiritually confident Ammon was to recognize the voice of the Spirit and to act on it without questioning. In my own mind, I sometimes question or doubt when I receive an answer, trying to think of why it is not reasonable or wondering if it is just something I have created in my mind. I think that Ammon must have had much practice in both hearing the voice of the Spirit and in acting upon it in order to have developed the faith and confidence to know when he was being directed by God and to be able to separate those promptings from his own thoughts and fears and doubts.

1 Nephi 12

It amazes me as I have been starting in 1 Nephi again that even though I just read I am picking up new insights again. It is truly is remarkable how the Lord works and that the Book of Mormon everyday can teach us something new.

In 1 Nephi 12: 17 it says,

"And the ^amists of darkness are the temptations of the devil, which ^bblindeth the eyes, and hardeneth the hearts of the children of men, and leadeth them away into ^cbroad roads, that they perish and are lost"

I love this part of the vision. How it is referring to the mist of darkness being the temptations of the devil. In our lives if we aren't doing what we are suppose to we have that mist as well. We are a lot more stressed, overwhelmed, unsure on things. I know that when i am not reading my scriptures I am a lot more edgy and feel a lot more stress. I know that if I have contention in my life it is the spirit of the devil and I can't focus fully on what I need to.....I have mist covering my way a little.

Peer Pressure

A while ago I read about Abinidi and wicked king Noah. As it often is, something new stood out about that scripture account and I have been pondering about it for the past week. King Noah did not want to kill Abinidi after hearing him out, but his priests (with the exception of Alma), gave him such a hard time that he decided to go through with it anyway. Because King Noah sucomed to peer pressure and commanded that Abinidi should suffer death by fire, Abinidi told the wicked king that he would be hunted and burned too, which eventually came to pass.

I thought of my past experiences and some of the times that I have been "burned" because I ignored a bad feeling, or put myself in a bad situation, because I was afraid of hurting someones feelings or telling them no. I also think of the many times that I have been blessed because I have stuck to my standards. I am thankful for the gospel and I have a testimony that I am blessed as I make good choices.

Why Keep Studying The Book of Mormon

Listening to conference a couple weeks ago I was very impressed with a statement Elder Bednar made about The Book of Mormon. I waited until the text of the talk came out on the internet to share it with you. Part of the talk explains why the Book of Mormon is so powerful and why we need to keep reading it. He listed several ways for families to protect their children in these wicked time. The very first one he listed was to read the Book of Mormon as a family. Quoting from his talk here was his reasoning.

"The Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on earth because it centers upon the Truth even Jesus Christ, and restores the plain and precious things that have been taken away from the true gospel. The unique combination of these two factors—a focus on the Savior and the plainness of the teachings—powerfully invites the confirming witness of the third member of the Godhead, even the Holy Ghost. Consequently, the Book of Mormon speaks to the spirit and to the heart of the reader like no other volume of scripture.

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that abiding by the precepts found in the Book of Mormon would help us “get nearer to God” than any other book. Regular reading of and talking about the Book of Mormon invite the power to resist temptation and to produce feelings of love within our families. And discussions about the doctrines and principles in the Book of Mormon provide opportunities for parents to observe their children, to listen to them, to learn from them, and to teach them.

Youth of all ages, even infants, can and do respond to the distinctive spirit of the Book of Mormon. Children may not understand all of the words and stories, but they certainly can feel the “familiar spirit” described by Isaiah."

There were several things that impressed me about his statement - one was that even infants just listening to the Book of Mormon feel its power. The other is the apostolic promise that regular reading of and talking about the Book of Mormon (which is just what this blog does) gives us more power to fight temptation and power to produce more feelings of love in our families. And who doesn't need that!

I had been thinking about suggesting that as you complete this reading of the Book of Mormon you write in the this blog about your insights into other standard works. But after Elder Bednar's talk I would like to challenge you (at least for a while longer) to continue to use this blog to do what Elder Bednar suggests - continue to talk about the Book of Mormon. Even if your study includes the other standard works, let's keep including some study of the Book of Mormon. You may want to start reading it again, perhaps with a more specific focus on a particular doctrine. Maybe you want to study a certain topic from the topical guide. Maybe you just want to randomly open the book and read whatever chapter it falls open to. As for me, I think I discuss more in depth some of the verses I underlined.

I hope you will all accept my challenge to keep writing in this blog from time to time (my goal will be weekly) and uplift the rest of us with your insights and feelings about what you are reading in the Book of Mormon.

I will finish the Book of Mormon challenge this week. I am happy to meet my goal but a little sad to lose this part of my daily routine. I hope that everyone will take Julia's suggestion that we keep the blog going. At the end of the Book of Mormon, many of the prophets are saying their goodbyes and giving their last words of advice. I think that if I were in a position to give my last advice to my friends and family, it would be similar. I would say the following:

*Wickedness never was happiness.

*When you do good, you feel good. When you do bad, you feel bad.

*You can not overestimate the importance of the ordinances and covenants you enter into.

*The Word of God is the iron rod. Hold onto it. Don't let go.

*The family is the most important organization in the Plan of Salvation. It is essential to our salvation and it will always be under attack.

*Repent daily. Don't put it off.

*Heavenly Father is anxious to bless us. He loves us more than we will ever know.

*Look for chances to serve other people. How we treated people will be the most important factor on the judgement day.

*The Spirit of the Lord cannot dwell where there is evil or contention.

*Faith and fear cannot exist in the same person at the same time. Replace your fear with faith.

*Go to the temple.

*Follow the Prophet.

These are some of the most important things I have learned from my study of The Book of Mormon. I will be trying for the rest of my life to remember and implement these ideas.