Today's Favorite Verse: Matthew 25:29

Today's Favorite Verse: Matthew 25:29

"For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath."

This is the parable of the talents. The Lord gave 5, 2 and 1 talent. The one that receive 5 doubled it to 10. He that had 2 doubled to 4. The person with 1 talent hid it and didn't even get usury for it. That one talent was taken from him and given to the person that had ten. It was the word usury that made me pause. It sounds so much like "used". The talent was not used and buried. That made me think of the scriptures how they are worth more than all the treasures of the earth. How if we don't use them we will lose even the knowledge that we have.

I've experienced this with scripture reading. There have been long stretches where my scriptures gathered dust sitting proudly on the shelf. No different than being being placed in the earth. I wasn't even getting usury from them. Oh, I knew they were important, even a treasure, but there they sat.

Eventually, I would dust them off and begin to read. At that point I would say I was a two talent scripture reader. I went through the motions. I got something from them, but it wasn't a great investment of effort. Yet, it was better than nothing. There is merit in the least of efforts. The Lord counts effort. Then eventually I would stop reading the scriptures and turn back to a one talent scripture holder. The knowledge gained over time would just faded away. I have lived this cycle the majority of my life.

Then I had such a great desire to really read the scriptures, and made a commitment to do so. The trouble was, I was just getting over an illness and could not read and comprehend. The doctor told me that I needed to read out loud so my brain could see the words and hear it, to make those connections. The perfect solution was to listen to the scriptures and follow along reading the words. It was many years of daily reading and listening and giving it my all. Yet, I didn't retain even a fraction of what I read, but I felt the spirit. It took me three years before my brain was healed well enough to read and comprehend on my own. When someone tells me they can't read and comprehend the scriptures I think, but you haven't tried. The Lord healed me, he can heal you. How much do you really want to be healed?

I have remained faithful to my commitment to daily read the scripture. The years I have put into studying and pondering the scriptures has developed such a love for them that they are the highlight of my day. I love seeing the harmony and consistency in the scriptures, how each set of scriptures builds upon another. I think these years of scripture study has made me five talents more. The beautiful thing about this story is once you have ten talents the Lord will still give you more.

Day 3113