Day 9 The Value of Scriptures for You and Family

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells his followers that they are the salt of the earth, and in the same sentence offers a warning that savorless salt is good for nothing. Join me in an attempt to be savory salt as I share each day one verse of scripture and one small thought. Perhaps this small daily emphasis can lead to greater savor in your life and ultimately you and I can be savory salt.

Hello, my friends and family, wherever you're listening from. Thank you for joining me and know that I'm cheering for your every success. Here we are.

Welcome to day nine, the second half of this intense story with Nephi trying to figure out what he's going to do with Laban. And look, I'm going to be honest right off the get-go here. I don't know if I fully understand all the promptings that Nephi had here, right?

Like this is Nephi having to kill Laban and that's intense and that's difficult. And so I'm not here to try and pick a verse here that just explains all of that away. I think you need to lean in and see what the Spirit has to teach you on the debate that Nephi has personally with the Spirit. wrestles with the spirit a little bit with this one.

What I do want to do today for our verse is look at verse 15. Now, before we get there, I need to make sure that you have the reading assignment for today. And so today, if you're following along with the 365 days, you're going to be reading 1 Nephi 4, verses 14 to 38.

So you're basically reading the second half. Okay, now 15 here, it's really close to the beginning of our reading for the day. And this is Nephi.

Yesterday he was going back and forth with the Spirit a little bit, and the Spirit was trying to kind of explain to him a little bit. And like I said, I'm not going to go into trying to fully understand that in this episode here. Instead, what I want to do is share a thought that Nephi landed with that's a little interesting to me and it stuck out to me.

It's verse 15. He says, "And I also thought that they could not keep the commandments of the Lord according to the law of Moses, save they should have the law." You know, it's interesting all this time, like Nephi's going back and him and his brothers have headed back to Jerusalem and they're doing this because it's a commandment of the Lord. And I think at this point here, Nephi has a really interesting understanding.

He thinks, wait, if we're never coming back to Jerusalem and I want to raise my family inside of the world that I've been raised in, which is the law of Moses for his time, I need the law of Moses with me. I need to have those commandments. I need to have the law.

And Laban had that, and Laban refused to give those up and had stolen their goods and all those types of things, right? You read all that part of the story. But this is really interesting because Nephi kind of has a personal understanding of the value of the commandments and the law in his own life for the sake of his family.

Now, what does that mean for you and for me? I think that's worth digging into. What is the value of having the Book of Mormon in your life?

Or even the Bible or all of the scriptures combined? What is that value? What's the value of the Book of Mormon for you?

Now, if you don't know that yet, that's okay. But it's worth planting that question. What value can I find from the Book of Mormon?

As I dive into this and as I read these stories, remember, on the front end, our very first personal in your life. This is about you and the Lord. And the Book of Mormon is going to draw you closer to the Lord.

In fact, according to Joseph Smith, it's going to do so better than any other book on earth. So it's worth digging into. Find that value for you and see if you come to the same conclusion.

And that's all I have for today. Remember that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. Keep it small, keep it simple, and always seek to be savory salt.

I'll be here tomorrow. I hope you are too.