Write it down!

[Switching to another form of writing for today's blog topic. A version of this blog was first posted at anwafounder.blogspot.com on 9/23/08 when we were studying the Book of Mormon in Sunday School.]

I teach Gospel Doctrine in my ward. The first week I got up to teach I said, "I'm your new Gospel Doctrine teacher...[pause]...I know, it's scary for me, too."

Really, anything with the word doctrine in the title should not have ME anywhere in the vicinity teaching it--isn't that best left to General Authorities and Seminary teachers? I guess a love for the scriptures counts for something because I'm going on about 6 months now in this calling and no uprisings or mutiny thus far.

I am by far the greatest beneficiary of this calling, as it has opened my understanding of the Book of Mormon as never before. Take Sunday's lesson--we read about how all the prophecies of Samuel the Lamanite came to pass--"every whit," no less. All the people witnessed the day, the night, and the day with no darkness; they saw the new star; there were many other miracles that were not named specifically. And yet, as time passed, some "began to be less and less astonished at a sign or wonder from heaven." They even convinced themselves that the miracles were "wrought by man and by the power of the devil." (3rd Nephi 2:1-2)

What happened?

I'm telling you, THEY DIDN'T KEEP A JOURNAL! A journal entry records one's feelings at a particular moment in time. When you go back to read it, you review that spiritual experience, that personal revelation, that answer to prayer--you review that miracle--and you remember what you felt. You can't change it or erase it or rationalize it away. It's there exactly the way you expressed it and felt it.

So, let us write down all the wonderful things that occur in our lives, and never stop being astonished at His handiwork.

PS. Check out ldsjournal.com for a cool, new way to keep a journal. I love it!