My favorite scripture is D&C 61:36:

"And now, verily I way unto you, and what I say unto one I say unto all, be of good cheer, little children; for I am in your midst, and I have not forsaken you."

This scripture is one that helps me when I am feeling down or just feel alone. The part that I love is when it says to be of good cheer. It is important for us to be happy even if life isn't 100% how we want it to be. Life is hard at times but we should look for the good things! The second part that I love is the end where it says, "For I am in your midst, and I have not forsaken you." Heavenly Father is right here with us and knows exactly what we are going through. He is here to help us and will never forget us. This verse always helps me when I am having a bad day. Heavenly Father does love each of us and is with us through the good AND bad times.

--Joslin Farmer

"Digging" into the scriptures

It took me a long time to be able to really "dig" into the scriptures. I had read the Book of Mormon many times, but each time I read it, I didn't really feel like I got much out of it. It just depressed me when people said what wonderful things come from reading the scriptures. But because I sort of made a pact with myself to always at least try to follow the gospel of Jesus Christ, I'd keep trying, rolling my eyes a bit each time I flipped the pages back to the beginning of the book. It wasn't until sometime in the summer that I really started loving the scriptures, the Ensign, and really anything gospel-related I could read, listen to, or, most importantly, think about.

I think the reason I learned how to "dig" into the scriptures was that I suddenly had an urgent reason to do so. Because of some major decisions that climaxed this summer, the need to think about God exploded in my mind. I had always wanted to grow closer to God, but at that point, thinking about God and working to learn about the gospel became an absolute necessity if I wanted to live a life guided by the Spirit. I had to work to know how to listen to the Spirit, and I knew that even if I had no firm resolve for anything else (people who know me will get that), I had a firm resolve for this: I wanted to live a life guided by the Spirit. So, I tried to base all my decisions off of the Spirit and to learn who exactly God is, what the gospel is and why it is so important, and what I should believe in. After one of the more painful decisions, I was fiery and willing to throw away anything I believed in just to make sure what I believed in was true. I had questions, and I wanted to see if they could be answered. (And I totally found that there are so many places to go!) I wanted to know. That's when I started to see that I didn't know everything there is to know in the scriptures, that there are so many answers to my questions.

 It was so amazing! It really is kind of funny how much it surprised me. There are so many things to learn from the scriptures, prophets, apostles, and leaders in the church! This may be kind of arrogant or something, but when I saw how much there is to learn, it seriously shocked me and made me so unbelievably happy.

So I guess what I learned from this experience is that in order to have "the scriptures opened to my heart," I have to have the desire to learn something. I also think it is important to approach it prayerfully with an openhearted desire to know God and a willingness to throw away any preconceived notions. Yep! That's my experience. I'm still trying to figure it out.

How can I have the scriptures opened to my heart?

A few years ago, I heard a recording of a BYU devotional by President Eyring. He was talking about scripture study, and some of the things he said taught me a great lesson. He said, “Just last month I learned again the power that comes from trying harder to have the scriptures opened to our hearts.” He then told a story about a man who had an intricate system of marking scriptures by topic. President Eyring felt inspired to do the same. “Within a day I had purchased an inexpensive set of scriptures. But it took more than a few days and more than a few prayers to know the topics that would open the scriptures anew for me.” He then proceeds to talk about his experience in deciding what to study and how much he learned from the scriptures by looking at them in that new light. (You should definitely check out the talk when you get a minute--especially listen to it if you can!)

A few things impressed me about this story: 

• The idea that we can try harder to have the scriptures opened to our hearts. 
• The idea that there are different ways to study the scriptures that will help us more. 
• And the idea of consciously praying to know how to better scripture study. 
• And especially the idea that it takes time and effort.

I've had a few experiences like this in my life. Sometimes they have been in challenges given to me from someone else--like when my mission president asked all of us to read the Book of Mormon and mark all occurrences of Christ's name and all occurrences of the Doctrine of Christ. Other times they have just been promptings from the Spirit--like when I decided I needed to read the Old Testament. And yet another time was when I decided to follow the council to read for a specific amount of time rather than a number of chapters.

I think many of us have had experiences like this, and I know that we all can continue to have them. I know that Heavenly Father is concerned about our scripture study. I know that He will help us make our scripture study a revelatory experience. I also know that it will take effort and we might not see the results right away. But, it will be worth it. President Eyring promises it will be:

I promise you that this day you will feel the influence of the Holy Ghost touch your heart as you search the scriptures with new purpose and as you pray earnestly. From that, you will this day have the assurance that God lives, that He answers prayers, that Jesus is the living Christ, and that He loves you. And you will feel your love for Him increase.

I hope we can all improve our scripture study this month as we pray about it and as we hear experiences from our fellow Relief Society sisters.

Love you all!

Melissa

Welcome!

Welcome to the "Awaken unto God" Relief Society blog!

As President Lusvardi said in stake conference a few weeks ago, we aren't completely sleeping, but there are more things that we can do to "Awaken unto God." This blog is something that will hopefully help us all to do that. We will focus on one principle each month. We'll hear experiences from other sisters, we'll post some scriptures, we'll read some great quotes, and hopefully it will just be very encouraging to all of us to keep improving our spirituality amidst our crazy busy lives.

(We're still working out the details of how this is going to work, but we'd love for everyone to be able to contribute! Stay posted to learn how.)

The theme for the month of November, in correlation with the stake Relief Society fireside, is scripture study.