30 Days of Pictures - April 18

Luke absolutely melted my heart today. These are his scriptures and this was the first scripture he has ever marked. On Sundays, in Sacrament meeting, I give Luke his scriptures to read while they are passing the sacrament. Sometimes Keith or I will give Luke a specific scripture to read, and sometimes we don't. Today Luke randomly turned to 3rd Nephi chapter 11 and kept reading for quite a while after the sacrament was passed. It was so sweet to see him genuinely interested in what he was reading. After a while Luke got excited and asked Megan if he could read her a scripture. She said no. Haha. I told her she really should listen so she did. Luke was really excited about this scripture because it reminded him of the Wise Man/Foolish Man song they sing in primary. I asked if he wanted to mark the scripture and after a lot of thought he said he did. He didn't want to mark it with the yellow crayon I had though. He wanted red.

I then showed him Helaman 5:12 (one of my favorite scriptures) which also has to do with that song. Luke got a big smile on his face after reading it and marked that one too.

Although it's surprising to me Luke can read scriptures and actually understand them, I shouldn't be surprised Luke chose to read 3rd Nephi for an extra amount of time today. That's the part in the Book of Mormon that Jesus visits the American Continent. The scripture he marked might not make a lot of sense unless you read the rest of the chapter. The rest of the chapter tells of the important things Jesus told the people in America, then at the end (the scripture Luke marked) basically says that it is wrong (evil) to add or take away from the things Jesus taught. You shouldn't change Christ's message.

One thing I absolutely love about my church is that we believe that Christ did visit the people in the Americas after he died and was resurrected. We believe that God loves all of his children. All of us. Everyone. The story of Christ visiting the Americas is so beautiful. He was loved and honored the short time he was here.

I haven't always been really good at reading my scriptures, but last year I spent more time than usual reading the Book of Mormon. I read it cover to cover. Normally I read a little here and a little there. I understand things so much better after reading it cover to cover. Not just names, places and facts, but spiritual concepts. One thing I realized is that there is a lot of symbolism in the scriptures for a reason. Symbolism helps us learn at our own level without having to understand everything at once. I think that is so neat.