My Story: Scripture Power

While I was reading my scriptures last week, I came across one that I'd marked as

"Chris' fav scripture."

Yea I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak;

therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God,

for in his strength I can do all things;"

Alma 26:12

My Bible and Book of Mormon are highlighted in different colors

depending how I want to remember individual verses.

Red for Doctrine. Yellow for Wisdom. Blue for History. Orange for Sanctification and Christ

(something I'm always trying to understand better).

And most importantly: Green for words that are specific to Me.

I don't always keep up with this method, as often I only have a ball pointpen nearby,

but I love as I've re-read and re-read, how color-coded verses jump out at me and I especially love

reading the notes I've made in the margins.

Last week, I came across a verse I'd marked "Dan's reunion in Argentina"

because when we returned to Buenos Aires and Barriloche on vacation,

we met old mission friends for dinner, thinking it would be fun to reconnect,

but instead, their reunion was so joyful, these grown men who hadn't seen each other in 30 years,

were moved to tears as they "rejoiced exceedingly that they were still brethren in the Lord,"

"...therefore, Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren;

and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord."

Alma 17:2

I newly marked this scripture which jumped out at me as attributes Nick has.

Alma 17:22

"Now Ammon, being wise, yet harmless..."

Happening upon these verses this week made me think about all the other scriptures

that have special meaning to my children and family. I flipped through my Book of Mormon

to find more so I could remember and make another record of them here.

December 2016

"Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God?"

Mormon 5:23

I read this just before Marty left on his mission, and they took on a special meaning

as I thought of him being looked after by God.

They became even more personally meaningful as I was strengthened by that knowledge

later that year when my Dad got sick and died.

June 2018

Just days after I returned from time with Courtney in New York, gushing the whole time

about how perfect her little one bedroom apartment was,

she called crying because she'd just received a letter from her landlord that he wasn't renewing her lease.

The devestation!

I read this scripture that day and it just seemed to portend that everything would be okay.

(And it was!)

"Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain."

2 Nephi 2:2

Family Home Evening 2012

And now my sons, remember remember, that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer,

who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation;

that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea,

when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you

to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo,

because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation,

a foundation whereon if men build, they cannot fall.

Helaman 5:12

I'll always hear Monet's low four-year-old voice reciting this from memory,

but all our family worked on memorizing this scripture in 2012,

with the reward of Baskin Robbins when we mastered it.

2020

While we were on vacation in Hawaii in 2020,

I threw out the idea of each family member sharing a scripture one day a week on GroupMe

It would be cool to share with Chris as well in our weekly letters.

Never did I imagine that just a few weeks later, a pandemic would start and church be cancelled.

My first Group Message says, "...I thought it would be a great tie to start [sharing scriptures] with church cancelled the next few weeks." (Little did we know it would be almost a year!)

This was Lizzies March 24, 2020

"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise..."

Alma 37:6-7

"This is one of my favorite scriptures--I love how it says "small and simple things." On my mission I found that if investigators read the scriptures daily, prayed daily and came to church weekly, they would progress. After returning home, I found that this was the case in my own life too. It's nice that they aren't huge things...it's the small, simple, ordinary things that make the biggest difference.

Another 2020 Covid scripture:

Alma 34:38

"...and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in..."

Michael's scripture from March 26, 2020

"Often the conversation around 'the gift of tongues' leads to statements surrounding missionary work,

that it can give you the ability to speak another language.

BUT what if it's not about the language in which you speak, but instead the CONTENT...

No matter the language, no matter the context, the Holy Ghost can inspire us to say what we need to say when we need to say it."

"Do ye not remember that I said unto you that after ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tongue of angels? And now how could ye speak with the tongue of angels save it were by the Holy Ghost? Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ.

Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ, for behold the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."

2 Nephi 32:2-3