Written By Alex Barlow. Alex is committed to spreading inspiring gospel messages through the unique form of poetry.
A few years ago I was on Christmas vacation in beautiful, sunny, Arizona. We were nearing the end of our trip and I had had a wonderful time. However, something just felt off, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
I just felt mentally, emotionally and spiritually weary. Then a thought hit me, “Of course! It’s been nearly a week since I’ve read my scriptures!”
I most certainly hadn’t neglected them on purpose but with everything going on with our family vacation, I had simply not made them a priority like I normally do. Apparently, my spiritual habits thought they could take a vacation too.
I immediately repented and began reading my scriptures again. As I pondered about this principle, I wrote down a few of my thoughts into a short poem,
“The most important tasks in life,
Are rarely tough to do
But we’re quick to be distracted
And neglect to see them through
For the struggle of the vital tasks
Is in the acting of the it
While most are never hard to do
They’re so easy to forget”
So here’s the deal- opening our Book of Mormon for a certain time a day isn’t a hard task. It’s not particularly physically grueling or mentally exhausting, and it doesn’t require finesse or skills.
But it is hard. Why?
Because it’s so easy not to do.
In a life full of distractions and other commitments constantly clawing for our attention, it’s easy to push something as simple as reading our scriptures to the back burner. It’s easy to just think, “Oh, I’ll just read them tomorrow” knowing full well that tomorrow will be just like today.
Consider this faithful warning from Alma to his son that addresses the concept of “easiness”:
“O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever.”
The way is prepared. If we just simply look. Look to God, look to his scriptures daily, and I know our lives will be immensely blessed.
I’ve seen this in my own life as well. The scriptures have been the well from which all good things in my life has sprung. They have been a constant source of nourishment, guidance and enlightenment.
I know that nothing, no matter how “important” should ever come between us and reading our scriptures.
So hold to that rod – and don’t let go. No matter how easy it seems.
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