More Important than Sleep

Each evening after we finally get the kids to sleep, I find my wife diligently reading the Book of Mormon on the couch, often with tired eyes from a day full of caring for the children.  I sometimes encourage her to go to bed and get some sleep, but she insists that she must study her scriptures.  She sometimes responds by telling me scriptures are more important than sleep, paraphrasing this quote from Elder Scott: “Don’t yield to Satan’s lie that you don’t have time to study the scriptures. Choose to take time to study them. Feasting on the word of God each day is more important than sleep, school, work, television shows, video games, or social media. You may need to reorganize your priorities to provide time for the study of the word of God. If so, do it!”  This has since become one of my favorite quotes.  We are prone to a million distractions and can always find good reasons to put something ahead of feasting upon the word of God.  But, as Elder Scott taught us, even sleep, school, and work are less important than our time studying the scriptures.  I remember hearing that my mission president once commented to an Elder departing from the mission field something to this effect: “If the you have days where you are so busy that you don’t have time to both each and study the scriptures, and you choose to eat, you are a fool!”  We cannot let the normal cares of life, however urgent they may appear, get in the way of our time to read, study, and ponder the scriptures.

               It is easy, though, to dismiss the power of the scriptures because their ability to bless our lives may not always be immediately perceptible.  Alma was speaking to Helaman about the scriptures when he spoke these now famous words, “By small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37:6).  Surely this applies to our daily reading and studying of the word of the Lord.  There is an almost imperceptible power that flows into our lives when we spend consistent time in the scriptures.  There was a famous violinist named Jascha Heifetz who remarked about his daily need for practicing his instrument: “If I don't practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it.”  This is a remarkable statement given that he would have already practiced the violin thousands and thousands of hours; yet, he said, missing a day was still detrimental.  I think this thought applies to us with the scriptures—when we miss a day, there is a difference, no matter how much we have previously read.

            The Savior’s focus on the scriptures during His mortal ministry confirms the emphasis that His disciples should likewise place on them.  When Satan came tempting, he quoted scripture: “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).  When He wanted to proclaim who He was to the people of Nazareth, He quoted Isaiah and then proclaimed, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21).  When the Pharisees criticized Him, He referred to scripture for justification: “Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?” (Matt. 12:3-4)  When He was questioned about how to gain eternal life, He first deferred to the scriptures: “What is written in the law? how readest thou?” (Luke 10:26)  He explained the betrayal of Judas to the apostles by referring to scripture: “That the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me” (John 13:18).  And even when He was suffering on the cross, He yet again referred to scripture, quoting Psalms 69:1, “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst” (John 19:28).  The Savior referred again and again to the writings of holy writ during His ministry, and surely at least one lesson from this fact is that we too need to immerse ourselves in the scriptures He has given us—even if it means less sleep.