Scripture study

I was at my sister's high school graduation a few weeks ago, and was struck by something someone said. He said on the first day of his English Literature class the teacher told them that reading through the classics for the first time might start out as a chore. Then after awhile they will become entertainment, and enjoyable to read. Then finally they will become life- changing as the values and things taught in the book start to become a part of who you are.

I hate to admit it, but I'm still stuck in the classics are a chore bracket. I wish someone had told me this as I started my English courses in high school so I could have found more of a purpose and not just be depressed reading The Grapes of Wrath or the Great Gatsby or whatever other books were on the English docket. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to read. But I never got past the language, slower pace, and harder hitting circumstances of many of these books, and just slogged through them to get the grade not enjoying one single book we read in high school english.

While this might be true for me and American "classics", I am however on a different plane for spiritual "classics" or the scriptures.

Many people I talk to tell me that they don't get the scriptures, the language is too hard, the circumstances are too gruesome or whatever else. So they don't read their scriptures.

I usually tell them about my husband who committed to read the scriptures EVERY DAY from age 15. He said he didn't start really understanding the language of the scriptures until 5 years later right before his mission at age 19. Then he got it, and not only that, but because of his perseverance, the scriptures started changing him. He started being able to pull principles and doctrines out of the scriptures for people in their everyday lives, and even today is one of the people I go to if I have a doctrinal question, because he so easily can navigate the verses and help me find what I am looking for. He blesses our family daily by his scriptural knowledge and the spirit that accompanies those who study the scriptures.

Power comes to us as we study the scriptures. Sheri Dew shared this at a BYU devotional.

"The word of God can transform us.

I have a lifelong friend whose teenage tampering with pornography evolved into a deadly addiction, and for years it has ruled him and ravaged his marriage. Frankly, I had lost hope that he would ever really change.

And then, a year ago, a remarkable sequence of events began to unfold. He began to study the scriptures for the first time since his mission. The word of God pierced his heart, and he knew he had to repent--which involved heart-wrenching confessions and subsequent excommunication. Now he is working his way back by immersing himself in the gospel as never before.

He wrote me this recently:

It was when I began to study the gospel that I realized I had been under Satan's power for years. When I finally got on my knees, pleaded for help to change, and surrendered my sins to the Lord, my world turned upside down. This past year has been a crash course in the ways of God and His Son. It has been the most difficult but wonderful year of my life. I wish I could tell everyone who is in a situation like I was to not be afraid to surrender to the Lord. They will find joy like never before in His Atonement. They will feel the Father wrap His arms around them. They will discover there is power in the gospel to really change."

I hope you have discovered, will discover, or continue to discover this change in your life. Because I sure love studying my scriptures.