My favorite 1st page of any book

To start off this blog, I'll be studying The Book of Mormon. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and we read from not only the Holy Bible, but also from the Book of Mormon. In our Sunday School lessons at church, we are currently studying out of the Bible. As a family, we have been studying the New Testament together. So for my personal study, I will delve into the Book of Mormon. If you are unfamiliar with the Book of Mormon, you can learn more about it HERE and HERE. In my life, I have found it to be inspired and uplifting and draws me closer to my Savior, Jesus Christ. On it's cover, the subtitle claims it to be another testament of Jesus Christ, and having read this book MANY MANY times through, I can tell you that it most definitely is. In the introduction to the Book of Mormon, the prophet Joseph Smith declared "I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, ... and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." I have found this statement to be true in my own life; as I study the Book of Mormon, and strive to live according to the teaching and counsel it's pages hold, I find the distance between myself and God narrowing.

I count the first page of the Book of Mormon to be the Title Page of the Book of Mormon. In any novel, I tend to skip over title pages and introductions, but I feel like these pages in the Book of Mormon really set the mood for what you will be reading and the purposes of the book. From my reading, I have found 3 main purposes stated for the writing of the Book of Mormon. First, to show unto the House of Israel what great things the Lord has done for their fathers. Second, to help them know of the covenants that the Lord has made. Third, to convince all people that Jesus is the Christ. 

I have pondered about these purposes and their importance. As one reads the Book of Mormon, they encounter stories of hardship, sorrow, struggle, and sin, yet they also read stories of hope, faith, sacrifice, and service. There are stories of God saving His children, of preservation, of miracles. From these stories, we learn that if God delivered our Fathers, He can deliver us as well. Just as the stories in the Bible help us to understand God and give us hope, these stories do too. We even see the Book of Mormon prophets making these same connections. Nephi tries to rally his brothers "to be strong like Moses" when they have difficult tasks to do (1 Nephi 4: 2). He realized the strength that comes from knowing what God has done for your fathers. 

A study was conducted in the 90's by a professor at Emory University, Marshall Duke, that examined the relationship between knowing your family history and resilience. In this study, they presented youth with 20 questions, all having to do with the history of their family. Some examples of these questions are "Do you know where your parents met?", "Do you know of some illnesses or injuries that your parents experienced when they were younger?", and "Do you know some lessons that your parents learned when they were younger from good or bad experiences?". The number of "Yes" responses to these questions by the youth turned out to be predictors in later years of their resilience. For example, then the tragedy of 9/11 hit our country, Professor Duke went back and reevaluated these teenagers, and those who had scored high on the "Do You Know" scale, found it easier to cope with the pain and confusion and sadness of the event. It turns out, it was not the actual answers to these questions that were important, but the pattern of passing information and communication it showed within a home. Households where children scored high on this "Do You Know" scale, were homes that had family dinners, family traditions, and family vacations. Parents and children spent TIME together and TALKED to one another. You can read more about this study, and take the test yourself HERE.

The Book of Mormon works much the same way. It is not the stories necessarily that are most important to know, but the INTERNALIZING of them. As we read the Book of Mormon, we learn that miracles DO happen, that they happened to our fathers and can happen to us too. We learn that trials and temptations can be overcome through Christ. They were for our fathers and can be for us. We learn that God protects and inspires and talks to His children, and that He can for us! What important knowledge to know! How uplifting, how inspiring. 

As I read the Book of Mormon, my memory is also sharpened. I remember stories in my family history and in my own life, when sacrifice has brought blessings, when righteousness has conquered evil, when God has provided strength or comfort. I remember those blessings that myself and my family have been blessed with and my heart is full of thanksgiving and gratitude. 

Second, the Book of Mormon teaches of the covenants of God. There is such strength to covenants. A covenant is a special and sacred agreement, stronger than a promise, between God and His people. He sets forth conditions and if we choose to keep those conditions, we receive the blessings. God has made beautiful covenants with His children that we get to become part of but before we can take part in them, we need to LEARN of them and come unto Him! He is waiting to bless us, but we need to learn of them so that we can reap those blessings. Throughout the Book of Mormon, God reminds us of the covenants that He made with our fathers, covenants that we can qualify to make, along with blessings we can qualify to receive. If we do not learn of them, they are lost on us. These are beautiful covenants with even more beautiful blessings and He has given us record of them here in the Book of Mormon so that we can claim them.

Third, the purpose of the Book of Mormon is to bring all men to a knowledge of the Savior, of Jesus Christ. Is this not the very most important task in the history of mankind? The scriptures teach us that "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" other than through Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). We NEED him. We all need him SO desperately, and the main purpose of the Book of Mormon is to teach all men that very thing and help lead them back to God through Jesus Christ.

Did you know that Jesus Christ is mentioned an average of every 1.7 verses in the Book of Mormon? And he is spoken of with 100 different names, from Lord to Savior to Redeemer to Holy One. Each reference and each name gives us more insight into his divine mission and character and helps us grow closer to him. Here is a wonderful article about the statistical significance of Christ's frequency in the Book of Mormon. Jesus Christ is mentioned in the first verse of the Book of Mormon and is the dominant figure through the entire book to the very last verse. No one can read the Book of Mormon prayerfully and not walk away with a greater understanding of Jesus Christ and an increased love towards him, as well as a desire to be more like him.

I love all the wonderful things that the Title Page of the Book of Mormon points to in what we have to learn and gain from reading it. I am excited to delve into the rest of the book and make many more discoveries!