Part of my problem is that I get an ideas for things I can blog about, but if I don't blog about them right away, I sometimes forget why I wanted to blog about them. For example, yesterday I mentioned an insight that I had gained the previous evening that I wanted to blog about then, but didn't because it was Valentine's Day. Now, no more than 36 hours after the insight was gained, I've forgotten why I thought it was so insightful and blog-worthy. To be honest, like many of the things I blog about, it seems more like something everyone already knows.
In my house, around Thanksgiving and Christmas, we make a Thankful Chain. Each link is a strip of paper on which we've written something that we're thankful for. Two nights ago, I saw a link that was partially concealed by another link, so I could only see the last four letters, "-URES." I wondered what the word was. I thought it might have been "Treasures," but that didn't make much sense. I looked at the link more closely and saw that it actually said "Scriptures." Close enough.
The scriptures we have a very valuable. The books themselves may not be worth much, but the information they contain can be used to obtain blessings on which no monetary value can be placed. Do you want to live forever is a state of peace and ultimate happiness? Let me rephrase that. Is there anyone on earth who doesn't want to live forever in a state of peace and happiness? We need to read these books.
But just having them, or even just reading them, isn't enough. We need to apply the messages they carry and incorporate their principles into our lives for them to do us any good. We watched the first half of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King a while back, and one line that stood out to me was where Gandalf said "Foreseen and done nothing," complaining about how Lord Denethor had foreseen the destruction of his city and had done nothing to prevent it. Just having the scriptures, or any other prophesies or eternal principles for that matter, isn't going to do us any good unless we actually apply what we learn. In that sense, the scriptures have no value to those who don't use them, though they still have tremendous value to those that do.
As Mormons, we've been blessed with more scripture than any other religion. We have the Bible, which most other churches do, and we have the Book of Mormon, which no one else has except a few Ex-LDS groups, and we have General Conference, which nobody listens to but us (not that they're not allowed to listen to it - They're more than welcome to, really - It's just that no one cares about it but us). With stacks and archives of hundreds of God-inspired messages, we have the potential to be the most blessed people on earth. But of course, the hold-up occurs when it comes to application. Unless we're actually listening to and trying to apply the many inspired messages we receive, all the scripture in the world isn't going to do us any good.
So we need to read and apply these many messages, but at the same time, we shouldn't wear ourselves out trying to read and apply every inspired message we have access to. We're blessed with too many heavenly messages for that to be practical. Personally, I'm going to try to focus on the Standard Works and the most recent General Conferences, with maybe a few other specific messages as chosen by inspiration to meet my specific spiritual needs. We have a wealth of inspiration available to us. Let's tap into it.
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