Today's Favorite Verse: Mormon 8:34-35

Today's Favorite Verse: Mormon 8:34-35
"Behold, the Lord hath shown unto me great and marvelous things concerning that which must shortly come, at that day when these things shall come forth among you.
Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing."

I pondered on Moroni seeing Joseph Smith's time and our day. Moroni went on to make an abridgment of the Jaredite record, and what would become the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon for us later. He would see the growth of the world wide church in my day. What marvelous inventions he would see that furthered the gospel message. As he is talking about the condition of men walking in their pride, and suffering the needy, hungry, and sick to pass by, he was also seeing us. The church does wonderful humanitarian things, but the hearts of men can do far more. This year, more than ever, I have understood how well they saw our day.

"The second great reason why we must make the Book of Mormon a center focus of study is that it was written for our day. The Nephites never had the book; neither did the Lamanites of ancient times. It was meant for us. Mormon wrote near the end of the Nephite civilization. Under the inspiration of God, who sees all things from the beginning, he abridged centuries of records, choosing the stories, speeches, and events that would be most helpful to us.
Each of the major writers of the Book of Mormon testified that he wrote for future generations. Nephi said: “The Lord God promised unto me that these things which I write shall be kept and preserved, and handed down unto my seed, from generation to generation” (2 Ne. 25:21). His brother Jacob, who succeeded him, wrote similar words: “For [Nephi] said that the history of his people should be engraven upon his other plates, and that I should preserve these plates and hand them down unto my seed, from generation to generation” (Jacob 1:3). Enos and Jarom both indicated that they too were writing not for their own peoples but for future generations (see Enos 1:15–16, Jarom 1:2).
Mormon himself said, “Yea, I speak unto you, ye remnant of the house of Israel” (Morm. 7:1). And Moroni, the last of the inspired writers, actually saw our day and time.
“Behold,” he said, “the Lord hath shown unto me great and marvelous things concerning that which must shortly come, at that day when these things shall come forth among you.“Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing” (Morm. 8:34–35).
If they saw our day and chose those things which would be of greatest worth to us, is not that how we should study the Book of Mormon? We should constantly ask ourselves, “Why did the Lord inspire Mormon (or Moroni or Alma) to include that in his record? What lesson can I learn from that to help me live in this day and age?”
(Ezra Taft Benson, "The Book of Mormon - Keystone of Our Religion", Oct 1986 General Conference)

I have asked myself this while studying the Book of Mormon with my family and personally this year. I have seen so many examples of why certain stories were included as a warning to us. Mormon and Moroni absolutely knew what needed to be included.

Day 3562