"Inspiring Stuff"......Hopefully”

I have been on two high councils and in 4 bishoprics. I have had the opportunity to prepare for and give numerous talks. To help get my point a cross and to connect with the audience, I usually shared a faith promoting story, a joke, a poem, a quote or two, and some point of doctrine. Consequently, through my research, I have collected a lot of “stuff”, as have we all. I thought it would fun to share something now and then. Feel free to cut and paste if you like. You may take anything you like. Please if you barrow some “stuff”, leave me a comment about how you liked or connected to it. ….. and I approve this message. Merrill J. Bateman, “Coming unto Christ by Searching the Scriptures,” Ensign, Nov. 1992, 27 On numerous occasions the Lord has commanded his disciples to search the scriptures in order to learn and live the doctrines of salvation. During his mortal ministry, the Savior stated, “Search the scriptures; … they are they which testify of me.” (John 5:39.) During his appearance on the Western Hemisphere following his resurrection, Christ quoted from the scriptures and then said to the Nephites: “Ye ought to search these things. Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently.” (3 Ne. 23:1.) In our day, the Lord enjoins his followers to “search these commandments, for they are true and faithful, and … shall all be fulfilled.” (D&C 1:37.) A small six-year-old boy wandered away from his handcart company during a storm and was lost. When the storm subsided, Robert and Ann Parker realized their boy was missing and began searching. For two days an organized search was unsuccessful. The decision was made that the company must move on because of the approaching winter. A pioneer journal records the following: “Ann Parker pinned a bright [red] shawl about the thin shoulders of her husband and sent him back alone on the trail to search again for their child. If he found him dead he was to wrap him in the shawl; if alive, the shawl would be a flag to signal her. Ann and her children took up their load and struggled on with the company, while Robert retraced the miles of … trail, calling, and searching and praying for his helpless little son.” One suspects that he did not just casually look behind a few trees or leisurely walk along the trail, but that he vigorously investigated every thicket, every clump of trees and gully or wash. “At last he reached a … trading station where he learned that his child had been found and cared for by a woodsman and his wife. [The boy] had been ill from exposure and fright. [But] God had heard the prayers of his people. “Out on the trail each night Ann and her children kept watch and, when, on the third night the rays of the setting sun caught the glimmer of a bright red shawl [above her husband’s head], the brave little mother sank in a pitiful heap in the sand. … [She] slept for the first time in six … days.” 1 The story illustrates the difference between just looking and searching diligently. A casual, infrequent exposure to the scriptures will generally not open the door to the whisperings of the Spirit or provide insights into the Savior’s life and character. We need to search the scriptures with the same vigor that Robert hunted for his son and with the consistency of the mother searching the horizon if we expect to hear his voice and know his words. President Howard W. Hunter of the Council of the Twelve in a general conference address stated the following:“Those who delve into the scriptural library … find that to understand requires more than casual reading or perusal—there must be concentrated study. … One who studies the scriptures every day accomplishes far more than one who devotes considerable time one day and then lets days go by before continuing.”