Late Night Study

Last week I attended two institute classes--Preparing For An Eternal Marriage and The Book of Revelation. While they were both VERY good classes, I believe The Book of Revelation class may have already benefited me greatly. There was something about sitting in that class and learning from the teacher and from the scriptures that sparked something that hasn't been sparked since my mission--a desire to have a good, in-depth study of the scriptures. Of course, I am reading the Book of Mormon daily, and I have been blessed with knowledge and peace from doing so, but this desire to sit down and study the scriptures and write down thoughts and impressions in a journal has been rekindled, and I am extremely excited about that.

I was so excited that I whipped out my study journal, and I started looking through it. My last entry was November 30, 2011 (a week after I got home from my mission). So yes, I continued the good habit of writing in a study journal after my mission, but...only for a week. That gave me a good laugh.

Now, the point of this post: I flipped through my study journal, and on page 2 there was a section called "Late Night Study Session (11:01 PM)." It was written while sitting on my top-bunk bed on May 19, 2011 (a year ago!) while I was, of course, on my mission. You see, I used to do that! There was a point in my mission where I was so obsessed (for lack of a better word) with studying the scriptures that I would take 10-15 minutes to do a "late night study session."

And the study I had that day was a good one so I wanted to share it with you all. That night I decided to begin my study of God The Father. My hope was to study every scripture that the Topical Guide had about God--His attributes, His foreknowledge, His eternal nature, His Gifts, etc. But before doing so, I decided to read what the Bible Dictionary said about Him. And there was a line that caught my attention. In the fourth paragraph in the Bible Dictionary, it says, "God can be known only be revelation."

Now this can be read and interpreted in a few ways, but when I read that sentence that late night, I looked at it in a personal-revelation kind of way. Each and every one of us can know God better through revelation. But how do we receive revelation? Well, as missionaries, we taught investigators three basic principles to seek and receive revelation: praying daily, reading The Book of Mormon daily, and going to church weekly. (Yes, the sunday school/seminary answers.)

So how do we know God better? How do we draw closer to Him? Through revelation. And we are allowed such revelation only when we are constantly striving to read, pray, and go to church. And I know that by doing so, we truly can know God.

It might sound simple to you, but I am grateful for those extra 10-15 minutes that I took that late night to make that small discovery about God while on my mission.