After This Manner

Recently Elder Bednar has encouraged members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to use the Internet and social media to "sweep the earth as with a flood" with "messages filled with righteousness and truth" (see here). I've thought, what can I do?  I don't spend much time on Facebook for fear of being entangled in its great time drain.  I don't have a Twitter or Pinterest account and wouldn't know what do with them if I got them.  I simply would rather spend time with my wife and kids than hanging around the Internet, and am far too boring of an individual to have anything interesting or exciting to share on social media websites.  But I do have a love for the scriptures, and have been daily recording my thoughts for several years now.  I reasoned with myself many years back that if I wrote a small paragraph every day in my own journal about something I observed, learned, questioned, or simply just thought about while studying the scriptures, then my time in the word of God would have more lasting value.  This was I think in part inspired by teachings of Elder Charles Didier who told missionaries in my mission that the difference between activity and result is challenge.  In other words, to transform our routine activities into meaningful results (however you might define the latter term), we needed to challenge ourselves.  So I've challenged myself to spend time every day writing something about the scriptures.  Now with the invitation from Elder Bednar I've decided to start using this blog to share some of what I write.  I hope simply that the few who happen to pass through here might be encouraged to spend more of their own time in the scriptures.

I guess I take for my example the little-known Nephite writer Chemish: he gave us one verse of the Book of Mormon (Omni 1:9) with no profound testimony or doctrine expounded.  But in his short paragraph the verb "write" appears five times in one of its forms and he witnesses simply of his brother's words and the general Nephite need to write: "After this manner we keep the records, for it is according to the commandments of our fathers."  So after the manner of Chemish I venture to keep my own record here of my journey through the scriptures.