Echoes

I finished reading the Book of Mormon again this morning.

Camp, Jane, Danin and Skip—

When I was growing up, I saw Dona and Grandpa reading their scriptures all the time.  I knew they loved reading their scriptures because of how often they did it and how often they talked about what they were reading.  As a kid, I read my scriptures, too–mostly because that is what I was taught to do, but also because my parents bred in me a curiosity to find out what was so wonderful about the words written on all those pages.  I wondered if someday I would say that I loved reading my scriptures, too.

Now, 20 years later, I may not yet be able to say that I love reading my scriptures, because I still have a hard time making a habit of it at times.  But I can say that I love what I read in the scriptures.  And I   can say that I’ve read the scriptures–particularly the Book of Mormon–so many times at this point that the words have started to echo in my mind.  And sometimes the messages that God wants me to hear will come to me through all those words repeating in the spiritual part of my mind.  I am grateful for that. Those words rescue me, just like the words of Alma regarding Jesus Christ rescued his son when he (Alma’s son) was racked with the pains of Hell.

And the Book of Mormon IS what it says it is.  It is a second witness (the Bible is the first) that Jesus is the Christ.  That message is repeated again and again and again.

For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do…And we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.