Developing a Love for the Scriptures

As a teenager, I knew my parents believed in God and Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost, and that they believed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to be the “true” church. I had prayed about it myself several times by then, and each time I felt like what I was doing was good. I did not, at this time have a “burning” feeling I could not contradict. I just felt like it was right. At this age, my scriptures were almost like magic. Opened up, they read like the clearest words ever written. They comforted me. I reached for them if I was scared. The words soothed my soul and gave me rich things to think about.

My Dad loved the scriptures and I knew it. I still remember the tears in his brown eyes as he read to us from Genesis about Joseph and his brothers.

I remember him quoting more than once the scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants that cautions us to be a loving and gentle people. It reads: “No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; by kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile--” (D&C 121:41-42)

Dad would also answer any questions I had about anything. This is a process that could take hours, as we would look up scripture references in the Bible Index, find supporting evidence in Dad’s library of church books mixed together with his wealth of personal experience.

Dad was (and is) smart. He could analyze doctrine and make it understandable. I will always be grateful for my Dad and what he taught me about the scriptures. I still call him up now and then and ask him to explain things to me.