This morning, the Gideons offered a gift of a pocket-sized copy of the New Testament plus Psalms and Proverbs. This was not the first time they made me this offer. In fact, I almost turned them down because I already had two such books at home, and those were just the ones from the Gideons, not counting the several copies of the scriptures I got through my church. Yet, as I thought about the two Gideon New Testaments sitting on the shelf at home, I realized that they weren't doing much good for me just sitting there, so I took the small book the Gideons offered me this morning, I read from it, and I profited by it.
None of the scriptures available to us do us any good unless we read them, and having scriptures on your shelf at home isn't as useful as having scriptures on hand. Theoretically, I already had a copy of the scriptures on hand, on my phone, but those scriptures, though ever-handy, are often ignored except in lessons or in family scripture study. Having a paper copy of the New Testament in my front pocket reminded me to actually read it, and it was when I read it that I felt the Spirit, not just when I had it in my pocket.
It may not be convenient to carry paper scriptures around, but that's actually one of the benefits. The inconvenience of those scriptures reminds us of their existence, and their single-purpose nature reminds us that the only reason we carry them is to read them occasionally. Unlike the other two, I think I might keep this Gideon mini-Bible on hand for a while, and read from it from time to time. I've already gained an insight and a portion of God's Spirit from it. I think it'd be wise for me to continue to carry a small set of scriptures whose only purpose is for me to occasionally read them. Then, maybe I actually will.
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