At the Behest of a Prophet

I just reviewed President Thomas S. Monson's talk The Power of the Book of Mormon, and I'm glad I did. His message didn't contain anything new, apart from the announcement of some new temples, but despite the repeated nature of his message it was still one that I needed to hear again.

We who have been raised in the church have always been told how important it is to prayerfully study the Book of Mormon daily, but how many of us actually do it? I can only speak for myself, but, to put it lightly, my studies of the Book of Mormon could be improved in frequency, consistency, length, depth, prayerfulness and basically every other way.

And the blessings being offered for prayerfully studying the Book of Mormon daily are ones that I could really use. President Monson concluded his talk by saying "I implore each of us to prayerfully study and ponder the Book of Mormon each day. As we do so," he promised, "we will be in a position to hear the voice of the Spirit, to resist temptation, to overcome doubt and fear, and to receive heaven’s help in our lives."

I would love to hear the voice of the Spirit more often and have greater power to resist temptation. I have a few fears and doubts I could stand to overcome, and we could all use heaven's help from time to time. All these blessings and more can be ours if we prayerfully ponder the Book of Mormon daily, as we've been counselled to do by our current prophet and probably every other modern-day prophet before him.

The counsel to study the Book of Mormon each day is nothing new, but I find that I frequently need to hear it. Reading the Book of Mormon daily is a habit that I fall out of far too easily, which is a real shame, considering the blessings I miss out on by not reading the Book of Mormon frequently. So, starting again tonight, I'm going to try to follow President Monson's counsel to study the Book of Mormon prayerfully. I can't promise that I'll read the Book of Mormon faithfully every night from now on, but I can try, and when I fail, I'll probably be reminded again by another message like this one.