I Know How and Where To Look

 When I was in high school one night a friend of another faith came home with me and was staying the night after a basketball game.  

As we sat on my bed, I pulled out my scriptures to read before I went to sleep and it prompted a fascinating conversation.  

She asked how I knew where to read.  And then how I could actually use the scriptures to guide me. 

"So if you wanted to know about why it's wrong to kill?"

I knew that one.  Exodus 20 has the Ten Commandments.

"What about deciding on your major and college options?"

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path."  Scripture Mastery.  I wanted to make sure I leaned on God's guiding principles of truth, and not just what I thought I wanted right now.

"What about being happy?"

I flipped to the index and quickly found several scriptures on the topic.  

For the next hour she gave me one question or topic after another and together we found scriptural answers. 

Finally she shook her head in wonder and said she couldn't believe I knew all of those scriptures.

I laughed and said, "I don't.  But I know where and how to look." And the more I practiced and put into place what I was learning, the easier it became and the more clear the answers seemed. 

Alma 30:44 says it very well.  "The scriptures are laid before you."  They are here for each of us to use. But that's up to us. 

We have even more study tools at our disposal than ever before.  Histories, links, audio recordings, simplified versions, the citations tool, podcasts, search engines, video discussions, and other's thoughts (like mine here).  Many of these supporting tools can be very helpful.

But ultimately all of those tools still come down to the power of God's word in the scriptures lain before us and the testifying witness of the Holy Ghost.  Without that it's just lots of nice thoughts. 

The scriptures are put before us.  But it's up to us to make and take the time to find what we need in our own learning style.  My memory is not consistently what it once was.  Thank goodness we  don't have to only rely on scriptures which we have memorized! 

I still don't have anywhere close to all of the answers.  In fact, the older I get the more confident I am of how much I still don't know.  But I know where and how to look.