Life Lessons

Reflect back on your life. I know, right? There's a lot to it. Now focus in on school; let's say 3rd Grade. That's when you were more likely than not learning multiplication and division. Remember those questions Mrs. Jones would ask you? "What is 12 multiplied by 6?" Oh snap. Your heart would beat a little faster, your palms would sweat, and the cogs of your mind would struggle to function a little faster. Your face would screw up in concentration, and suddenly your mind tried to compute the hardest question of your life. "18, no wait, 72." Got it. Mrs. Jones nodded, and moved on to the next victim. Phew. You sigh a deep sigh of relief, lean back in your seat, and feel pretty darn good that you got the answer right.

You advance a little bit in the world, and enter middle school. You feel like the big man on campus, because guess what, my friend, you are no longer in elementary school. That's kid stuff. In middle school you learn things like the isosceles triangle, compound-complex sentences, and how to play the flute. This is the big leagues. But then the hard part comes. You have to write an essay about the geography of Africa. The palm start to sweat again, your mind is working in overdrive, and you nervously shift your weight in your desk. Taking a deep breath, you scribble down everything you can think of about Africa, it's Eco-system, and its geography. A week later, you let out a sigh of relief as you see the big red 93 on your test. Good day.

Fast forward to Junior Year of high school. You are sitting in your US History class, scribbling down dates and facts about the greats, such as Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson. You longingly look outside thinking about your next track meet, play practice, or that cute guy in your 4th period. You spend hours and hours preparing for the AP exam, praying that you will study the right things. You are sitting in the prison like testing room, open the essay prompt, and try to recall every fact possible about the "sphere of domesticity." You write about the role of women in the nineteenth century, and offer a silent prayer of gratitude that you had in fact studied this last night.

You graduate. Perhaps you attend some college, and possibly even grad school. Well done, you. You recall those days in elementary school trying to compute 12 mulitiplied by 6, and long to go back to the simplicity of it all. Now you are dealing with things such as:

negative b plus or minus the square root of b2 minus 4ac all over 2a. It shocks even yourself that there was in fact an answer to that question. It's interesting that no matter what it is we are learning, it can seem daunting, overwhelming, and can present itself as the hardest question of our lives. Yet, the answers are all there, and as we study, we find them.

Life is similar. At some point in each of our existance we will ask ourselves hard questions. Questions that may seem daunting, insermountable, and may seem like the all to familiar, "hardest question of our life." Such questions will come to all of us. "What is my purpose in life?" "What happens after I die?" "Why do bad things happen in the world?" "How can I keep my family safe?" "What in the world am I doing here?"

Luckily, there are answers to these great questions of the soul. For centuries, God's children have been asking them, and for century, God has been answering. He answers them through our own prayers, and through his servants the prophets. The scriptures are the source for finding answers to questions such as these. We can all know what our purpose is, how we can overcome sin, how to keep our relationships strong, and how to find lasting peace and joy.

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ is one of the greatest sources of answers God's children have ever seen. It truly testifies of Chirst, and points us in the right way back to him. Nephi, a prophet in the Book of Mormon teacfhes us to "feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do." Answers to our life lessons can and will be found in the scriptures.

When writing to Timothy, the apostle Paul commends Timothy for having a knowledge of the scriptures, for "they are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Paul also teaches that "all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."

If we have a question, we need look no further than the written word of God. As we prayerfully study, and ponder; as we ask, seek, and knock, the answers to life's greatest lessons will be revealed to us by a loving Heavenly Father through the power of His holy spirit. I testify of this. I know that Jesus is the Christ, and that he is the only way whereby we can obtain salvation. He is our redeemer.