Getting Answers

I once heard a saying "If you want to talk to the Lord, pray. If you want the Lord to talk to you, read the scriptures." This really brought the accessibility to our Heavenly Father home for me.

Often times I felt it necessary for a vision or great epiphany in order to hear what our Father has in store for us. To know that the answers to my problems are in the scriptures is very comforting. If the exact answer is not expressly written in a verse, the Holy Ghost then fills in and somehow relates it to whatever it is that I am seeking. It’s a truly brilliant way for us to exercise our faith to act in an effort to earn an answer from our Father, as well as trust that we will get an answer through our efforts.

While on a mission this never rang truer. For the first time in my life I was alone and all I had was God and my memories to carry me through. Initially I looked to a great vision for answers to my prayers and they never came. Once I humbled myself to the scriptures, and knew that I was going to learn something new no matter how many times I had read that particular verse. When the Holy Ghost is teaching through the scriptures it doesn't matter what is actually written on the page, rather where your mind is taken by the gift of the Holy Ghost to learn what the Lord wants you to.

The difference between knowledge and understanding is application. To know something merely means you can recite it or can relate when someone talks about it. To understand is the ability to apply that topic. To live what you know means you understand. To understand that the answers to everything are found in the scriptures would mean that you actually go there to find answers instead of just knowing that the answers lie there.

I know from experience that we are children of our Heavenly Father. While in the MTC, I remember a few weeks into it all kneeling at my bedside praying harder than I have ever done before. Prayer after prayer no answers were coming. Finally when I had run out of words to say I sat on my bed and just opened the scriptures. I didn't turn to a certain page, I just opened them and started reading. I couldn't tell you today where I read or what I read, but I can tell you that my Heavenly Father spoke to me that night and gave me courage to fight and forget myself in the service of this children. It was what I needed at the time I needed it.

The scriptures are the Lord’s words written down. My scriptures are the words He has spoken to my mind and are an additional place I can turn to for answers. We should all have a log of personal lessons written down where we can turn to them when we need the words of a loving Heavenly Father.