Answers in the Scriptures

Hi friends! Summer is almost over and I can't believe it. We have had such a good summer and I have been so grateful for everyone who has helped and shared with us to make it so. It will be good to get back into some sort of routine and schedule but these summer days sure have been relaxing. 

We have started meeting in small groups at church again and I was invited to give a talk this last Sunday. Since this blog is a repository for all of my church talks I figured I might as well post it. As usually happens when preparing a talk, I was the one who benefitted the most and was grateful to remember, again, how often the scriptures have been a resource for me to receive answers and strength from the Lord.

I am very grateful to be with you today. I have missed worshiping together with other saints and feeling the spirit that comes as we gather in the name of the Lord and therefore appreciate having this opportunity, even if it is different than normal, to share with you. 

These are interesting times. Last month I was talking to my grandma who is now almost 91 years old. She lived during WWII and told me that the effects of this pandemic and social isolation have been harder for her than living through a world war. These last months have not been easy for any of us and often we have been left wondering “What do we do?” “How do we move forward?” “What is the best path for me, for my family, for my community?” 

And it can sometimes feel like there are no answers. That our questions go unheeded and unheard. That we are left alone wandering through the wilderness. 

But it does not need to feel this way. We have a resource and a recourse that can give us clarity, that can provide direction, that can help us find purpose and guide each of us- as individuals and as families- in knowing what to do. 

This source can tell us all things that we should do. ALL THINGS! 

So what is it???  What is this amazing source of direction and help and knowledge??? 

It is the scriptures.

The word of God.

Nephi exhorted us to “feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.” 

We can know what to do in all things- ALL THINGS- from reading, using and feasting on the scriptures. 

But you may be thinking “come on, really? Really? The scriptures can tell me what to do about how to live during a pandemic? How to help my child who is struggling? What to do with a group of friends that is hard to get along with? How to handle my feelings of doubt and fear? What to do when I feel like the Holy Ghost speaks to everyone but me?” And on and on and on and on. 

Take a minute right now. Think about a question you have or a doubt you are facing or a troubling life situation you do not know how to handle. What is concerning you? 

I want to share three experiences with you where I received critical guidance and help from the scriptures at times where I did not know what to do and hope that these will illustrate how the words and stories of the scriptures really can give us direction in our own lives.

1- I served as a missionary in Venezuela and loved my experience there. Close to the end of my mission it was time to decide when I would come home. At that time (and maybe still today) because of the way an 18 month girl mission fell over the 6 week transfer schedule there was a time gap for sisters coming home. To keep with the transfer schedule you could either come home at an earlier date which meant you would technically serve 3 weeks shy of a full 18 months or you could come home at a later date which would mean you technically serve 3 additional weeks over an 18 month mission. I know that 3 weeks either way does not sound like much, but at the time it weighed heavily on my mind and heart. I loved my mission and didn’t want to “stop early” or feel like I was failing the Lord. The early date would also put me home in the middle of July, with no job and really nothing to do until college started at the end of August. I could realistically stay until the later date and still have two weeks to be home and prepare to start back up at BYU. I had mission friends who were deciding to stay and some who were leaving earlier and I was completely torn. I had prayed and prayed about it for weeks and even asked my zone leader for a blessing as I was having such a hard time deciding. And still nothing came and I did not know what to do. 

As a missionary you study the scriptures daily and it was part of my usual routine. So one day as this decision was still weighing on my mind I was reading the Book of Mormon, in Mosiah chapter 7. This is the story of Ammon (not the missionary) and 16 strong men who went up to the land of Lehi-Nephi to find out about the group of people who had left Zarahemla to inherit that land. As they arrived they were taken and bound by King Limhi, who, along with his people, was in bondage to the Nephites. However, once he discovered that Ammon and his brethren were Nephites from the land of Zarahemla he immediately loosed their bands. And in verse 16 it says “King Limhi commanded his guards that they should bring their brethren into the city, that thereby they might eat and drink and rest themselves from the labors of their journey; for they had suffered many things; they had suffered hunger, and thirst, and fatigue.” 

I remember such a powerful feeling entering my mind and heart as I read those words and I knew in an instant the answer to my concern- I could go home at the earlier date and have time to eat and drink and rest myself from the labors of my mission. I felt completely assured that the Lord knew my heart and had seen my efforts as a missionary and wanted me to choose to go home at the earlier date to have time to rest and recover from my labors. And so I had my answer. I let the office know and never questioned the decision again. I had total peace and assurance that came from reading the scriptures. Little did I know that in those extra weeks at home I would also have time to spend dating Jacob Robertson and eventually take steps towards marriage before we were both at different universities that fall. The Lord was aware though and provided for me in every particular. 

2- Now fast forward 14 years. Jake had been fighting brain cancer for over 2 years and during his last hospital procedure we received the news that the cancer had spread all over his brain and that there were no more treatment options to pursue. Jake was going to die. Even though I knew this day would eventually come, I was devastated and at a complete loss in knowing what to do. I had no experience with hospice care or death and was uncertain about what would happen and how we would get through it. I didn’t know how to help him and do the care that would be required as his body was failing.  A few weeks before this I had finished the Book of Mormon and decided to read the New Testament. 

So shortly after we came home with the bad news and were meeting with the hospice workers to make decisions about Jake’s care in his final weeks of life, I was reading in Matthew chapter 26. In verses 1 and 2 Jesus talks to his disciples and tells them that after the feast of passover he will be betrayed and he will be crucified. He knew that it was coming and that his death was near. And I felt assured that He also knew my dread of anticipating Jake’s forthcoming death. Then the answer of what to do to care for him as he was dying came in verses 6-13. These verses share about how Jesus was with his disciples in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper. And there came a woman with an alabaster box of precious ointment. She poured it on Jesus’ head and when the disciples saw it they were angry and said they could have instead sold it for money to give to the poor rather than have it wasted. But when Jesus heard them he said, “Why trouble ye the woman? For she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you; wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.”

I had a profound confirming witness reading the story of the woman that this was what the Lord wanted me to do as well- to love and care for my husband’s failing body and to consider it a privilege to minister to him for as long as he was still with me. That scripture totally changed my approach to Jake’s physical decline. Those months of caring for him as he was dying were some of the most sacred of my life as I was able to serve him in such a vulnerable time of need and see him through to the end of his days. The scriptures provided a guide to help me handle a situation that I felt totally unprepared to handle and made a very trying experience incredibly sacred and profound. 

3- Just a few weeks ago as I was reading the Come Follow Me assignment I had this thought- “I wonder what the Lord has for me to learn through Covid and these last months?” Then I opened to Alma 32 and read verse 12 which says “I say unto you, it is well that ye are cast out of your synagogues, that ye may be humble, and that ye may learn wisdom; for it is necessary that ye should learn wisdom; for it is because that ye are cast out that ye are despised of your brethren because of your exceeding poverty, that ye are brought to a lowliness of heart; for ye are necessarily brought to be humble.” The idea that leapt out to me was humility.

In that verse Alma glories that the people’s hardships had compelled them to be humble - that they may be wise - and learn wisdom and be brought to a lowliness of heart. They knew that they needed God. That they depended on Him for all that they had and were. 

And as I read this scripture I felt instantly that this was the lesson the Lord wanted me to learn during Covid. To remember how much I depend on Him for my support. For my protection. For a defense and a refuge from the storm. In the preceding months I think I slowly started to think that I could do it alone. That I could handle it. But after reading the scriptures I was gratefully reminded that the Savior really does want me to turn to Him and let him shoulder and carry my burdens. 

In talking to his son Heleman, Alma states three things that the scriptures can do in our lives. They can enlarge our spiritual memory, they can convince us of the error of our ways, and they can bring us to a knowledge of our God unto the salvation of our souls. 

This is the promise and the blessing of regularly reading the scriptures. We may not get answers every time we read or have a profound spiritual experience in every scripture study. But the act of consistently being in the word of God, at critical points in our lives when we need help in knowing what to do, will give us the answers to the questions we seek.

I know this is real. The scriptures have been a source of guidance to me for as long as I can remember. God has spoken to my mind and heart through the words ancient prophets and given me answers at times when, on my own, I did not know what to do.

He can and will do that for you. Read His word and let the reality of His love permeate your life and give you hope and strength beyond your own.