Blessings of the Book of Mormon

   This past Sunday in Relief Society, our lesson was on reading the scriptures and the blessings of learning that come to our home when we do. At the end of the lesson our teacher challenged all of us as a Relief Society to read the BOM in 60 days. I am the kind of person that loves a challenge, I love to take something hard, work at it, complete it, and get that great feeling at the end knowing that I DID IT! This challenge is something that I know that I will enjoy and reap rewards of, but it will be a challenge. I admit, I'm one of those that secretly rejoices inside when I see that 6-verse-long chapter for the night's reading. However, when President Gordon B. Hinckley issued his challenge for us to read the Book of Mormon I remember how easy it was to get into it. It was amazing how alive the stories and people became when I was reading more pages and chapters at one time. It became so much easier to understand how the timeline all fit together. Aside from the blessings that came into my home from completing the challenge then, what it really did for me was to make the Book of Mormon come alive, to get me wanting to read more. Even though I read it often and learn about it in church, it was like reading a good novel, I didn't want to put it down because I needed to read what was going to happen next.

   So, despite my busy schedule with kids, husband gone for the month for training, and starting some classes myself, I am looking forward to this challenge and for the feeling I will get during and after. I am only on day 8 and I already can tell a difference in my temperament and my ability to be patient with my kids. I love the Book of Mormon. So, if you feel up to a challenge, I promise it is worth it! But you don't have to take my word for it:

 

   "The moment you begin a serious study of the Book of Mormon, you will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance." -Ezra Taft Benson

   "I offer a challenge to members of the Church throughout the world and to our friends everywhere to read or reread the Book of Mormon. Without reservation, I promise you that if each of you will observe this simple program, regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come in to your lives and in to your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living of the Son of God." -Gordon B. Hinckely