Personal Scripture

I have a strong respect for uplifting quotes. As a high schooler I found profound, personal satisfaction by coming across quotes that helped me through difficult or trying circumstances. These phrases meant so much to me that I got into the habit of always carrying a little pad of paper with me wherever I went. I liked being able to go back and refer to meaningful quotes when feeling discouraged or lost and I didn’t want to miss out on any new favorite quotes I might have come across.

I have since filled my little green quote book up completely and now keep notes of new quotes I discover on my smartphone. Surprisingly, my weathered little green notepad is one of my most prized possessions.  There is something about the effort I put into it that makes those quotes I love that much more special. 

Another book that is also one of my most prized possessions the scriptures. 

The quotes that I have diligently looked and listened for are very similar to the scriptures that I have faithfully read throughout my life.  Both give me needed spiritual strength and both have taken effort and study to understand and truly enjoy.  It is interesting to note that many of my favorite quotes give references to the scriptures.  Take this one for example…

“A set of worn out scriptures is a sure sign that the person reading them is not.”

I have seen this quote hold true time and time again throughout my life.  The more I read the scriptures the more I have strength to overcome the trials I face in my life. This talk is about scripture study, but I don’t want to just reference the scriptures in general, I want to talk specifically about personal scriptures and how to make the word of God more personal. 

I want to do this because I believe that understanding what personal scriptures are, is how we can best receive greater spiritual strength from the word of God.  I think though, that if we want to gain more spiritual strength we need to understand where the strength actually comes from.  Let me start by stating that to me ‘strength’ comes from the unifying and nourishing of all the different aspects of any given unit. 

Man likes to gauge and measure strength as if it is something the eye can see. People often make judgment calls from the outward signs and appearances that are most noticeable, and they do this without paying attention to the rest of the unit they are looking at. For instance, strength in business is often ‘gauged’ by how much money it makes.  The strength the human body has tends to be measured by how much muscle can be seen, Light’s strength is referred to as how visibly bright it is and a student’s strength seems to lie with their grades. 

There are many such examples that may not give a correct evaluation of a unit’s strength, especially in a gospel setting.  Often time’s people gauge a person’s spiritual strength by how they see them living the commandments. All the units I just mentioned, however, have different subcategories or subdivisions, meaning that it’s not just one thing that makes up each specific unit.  In order to strengthen each unit as a whole, every aspect needs to be addressed and effort is required to do that.   

Muscles and fitness at large, for instance, don’t just happen. One needs to eat well, get enough rest and put energy into working the muscle.  Businesses as well don’t get money without strategy to interest customers in what the company has to offer.  Likewise, the gospel of Jesus Christ has many different facets. The commandments others see us fulfilling aren’t necessarily a good indicator of how converted we are to the gospel.

We can’t truly live the gospel without first understanding it as a whole and then putting effort into every aspect of the gospel; not just the commandments that are more easily noticeable.  In other words, the real strength that we receive from gospel living is directly related to how well we unify and progress in each individual part of the gospel. 

As we get better at studying the scriptures we will gain spiritual strength because working on one area of any unit will directly affect and help us in all other areas of that unit.  Going back to what I mentioned before, the best way to I’ve found to become stronger in our study of the word of God is to understand what personal scripture is. 

When we hear the word scripture, we might think ancient prophets, The Bible, the thing we’ve been commanded to learn about etc., but is that the only thing that we can refer to as scripture or is there a link between my favorite quotes and my favorite scriptures that both help me out in a similar fashion?

I think there is a very close link between the two and one of my favorite quotes gives a very good explanation concerning this connection.  This quote was actually a thought that my brother wrote down in an email he sent to me while I was on my mission.  He wrote: “Scripture is the collective wisdom of God that all men have the ability to share.”

It would seem with this as a definition that wisdom comprises what we can consider to be scripture.  From my personal scripture study of late, I’ve found that it’s helpful for me to put scriptures into two somewhat loose categories: public and personal.  I say loose because depending on the person and the situation, different scriptures may be switched from one category to the other. 

Public scripture, of course, accounts for the cannon of scripture that we know to be the word of God written by prophets.  Yet, public scripture is not limited to one set of scriptures, rather it keeps growing as prophets receive further revelation from God. 

D&C 1:38 – What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.

When we read what can be considered public scriptures, all we have is simply a collection of sacred revelations and events that testify of Christ that were written down so that everyone could read them.

One such example in the scripture is recorded in 1 Nephi chapter 16 of the Book of Mormon. When Nephi breaks his nice bow and he and his brothers are not able to obtain food.  Nephi’s family all complained and forgot the Lord but Nephi was able to make a new bow and get food for his family because he continued to have faith and courage in a difficult time.

This and other such experiences in the scriptures were personal to the people that they happened to, just like the events in our lives are personal to us.  Public scripture is often someone else’s personal scripture – i.e. individualized spiritual experience from the lord – that was made public.

This explains why the two categories can often be interchanged.  Patriarchal Blessings are often referred to as one’s own personal scripture and many other spiritual help and experiences we receive throughout our lives, such as spiritual and uplifting memories, quotes, advice, testimony, promptings and so forth, can also become scriptures to each of us on a personal level. 

Going back to the quote/definition from my brother, basically anything that gives us more wisdom can be a form of scripture. We need to focus on public scripture throughout our lives and continue to reading the literal word of God daily, but consider how much more effective our scripture study will be and how much more overall spiritual strength we can then receive if we also work on and study our personal scriptures.

A living prophet that is the Lord’s servant today and speaks revelation directly from God, President Thomas S. Monson, gave a talk entitled “How Firm aFoundation” in the October Conference 2006. In that talk he provided me with yet another of my favorite quotes when he paraphrased the English poet James Barrie with the following statement: “God gave us memories, that we might have June roses in the December of our lives” –James Barrie

What I get from this quote is that when our lives become exceptionally challenging, we can refer to our past spiritual experiences and life lessons, or in other words our personal scriptures – in doing so we will feel the peace and beauty that a June rose brings, even if we are currently faced with a Spiritual blizzard. 

Every one of my favorite quotes becomes one of my favorites because it acts as one of those June roses for me. One example I hold dear is a memory from my early childhood.  My younger brother, my best friend at the time and I were all sleeping under a couch for a sleepover.  For some reason I felt very scared and was not able to fall asleep.  I kept closing my eyes and envisioned the place where we’d laid out our sleeping bags on fire.  I got on my knees while my two companions kept sleeping and I prayed to be safe and sleep well.  I was then able to fall asleep without fear and nothing bad happened during that night.

This is a simple yet powerful memory of one of my own personal spiritual experiences.  I consider it a sacred scripture that has helped me, throughout many hard times in my life, to remember to pray and seek guidance from my Heavenly Father. I feel confident that Nephi’s memory of breaking his bow is just as personally sacred to him and strengthened and solidified his testimony of faith and courage. 

It is through these personal “scriptures” that we gain the extra courage and strength to endure this life as well as a heightened personal testimony of the gospel; which is so important to our well being and overall spiritual strength.

One scripture that helps me to see the process of finding personal scripture is in 1Nephi19:23 – And I did read many things unto them which were written in the books of Moses; but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning.

Just like we can’t merely read the scriptures and be saved, in order to benefit from our own personal spiritual experiences and to make them, in essence, our personal scriptures we need to ‘liken’ them in our lives.  I hope we can all see how closely related public and personal scriptures are, but understanding alone won’t give us any more strength. 

To understand what scripture is, it helps me to put them into those two categories I’ve discussed. Yet, the way we can really see greater strength from our scripture study is to make all scripture which is written by the mouth of prophets our personal scriptures. The experience Nephi had with his bow or any other experience we find in the bible will not have happened to us personally, but we can personalize or as Nephi put it ‘liken’ their experiences in our own lives. 

For instance, when I read the scriptures I feel the spirit, but when I think about how I would react in any given situation in the scriptures, I gain a greater appreciation and love for living the gospel. It is then easier for me to see where I need to improve. 

The good thing about having both public and personal scriptures is that A. we can make the public ones as personal as those we actually experienced and B. we can constantly strengthen our testimonies as well as our spiritual well being as we consistently turn more and more of our experiences into scripture. 

With my explanation of what personal scripture is, I want to conclude with a couple quotes which I’ve enjoyed over the years and that I hope others will be able to appreciate as well…

This quote I found on one of those uplifting yearly calendars that had accompanying motivational pictures.  It reads: “When your adversaries tell you that you can’t go any further, just tell them to look behind and see how far you’ve come.” – This is a wonderful reminder to me that however bad the trials we face in life get, there is still much to be happy about.

And the last quote I will share I found framed on the wall of my old Bishop’s home. “The greatest gift a father can give his children is to love their mother.” – I loved that I could feel the truth of this simple phrase even when I didn’t have children, and now that I do, it provides a greater desire within myself to respect my wife every time I read it.

All the quotes/scriptures and experiences I shared today were further examples of man’s wisdom being shared to help others out.  They give gospel principles just as clearly and simply as the Savior meant them to be and help me to see that there is still a lot of goodness in people; that the light of Christ continues to shine throughout the world. 

It is my hope that as we continue in our lives that we will realize the great blessing it is to have memories and personal spiritual experiences. Never forget that we can indeed personalize the scriptures a little more each day so that we can receive needed strength to become the people the Lord needs us to be.