Keeping It Simple

A few weeks ago I began reading the scriptures with my eleven year old brother in addition to my own personal study. We began at the very beginning (a very good place to start) of the Book of Mormon and set a goal to read at least one chapter a night. At first I thought we'd be able to read way more than one chapter in the time we had allotted ourselves but I quickly found that we probably didn't have enough time.

I sat across the table from my brother and looked at his puzzled face as he read. I said, "Dallin. Do you get what you just read?" He quickly skimmed over the past two verses before looking up at me with lost eyes. I laughed as I began explaining what we had been reading but before I could even finish my thoughts, his face lit up and his eyes widened. "OH! You mean..." and he began applying the verses of scripture to his own personal life. "Right?" He asked.

Actually... RIGHT! I was surprised at what I heard spouting from his mouth; he said things that I hadn't even thought of having read those verses of scriptures countless times. His answer seemed to be so simple, yet it made perfect sense. Dallin and I finished reading the chapter and we were off to bed.

This encounter with my brother made me think of the word "simplify" from Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk It Works Wonderfully  (October 2015 General Conference).

"This beautiful gospel is so simple a child can grasp it, yet so profound and complex that it will take a lifetime - even an eternity - of study and discovery to fully understand it...

"...But sometimes we take the beautiful lily of God's truth and gild it with layer upon layer of man-made good ideas, programs, and expectations. Each one, by itself, might be helpful and appropriate for a certain time and circumstance, but when they are laid on top of each other, they can create a mountain of sediment that becomes so thick and heavy that we risk losing sight of that precious flower we once loved so dearly."

I'll admit I've done this before. I often make the gospel more difficult than it ought to be; I'll think too hard or question too deeply and it never does me one speck of good. In fact, it usually makes me frustrated and I'll "decide" to take a break from the scriptures or from praying for a little while (I promise this won't do you any good, either).

I would like to add, however, that having questions is not a bad thing. Questions are what help us gain knowledge. "The Lord has sent knowledge to the earth, even of the weighty questions of eternity, the most precious of all knowledge. He wants us to have all the additional light and knowledge we can accept and live." [Happy Like Jesus by D. Kelly Ogden, p. 30, emphasis added] This is when we take President Uchtdorf's advice and "simplify [our] approach to discipleship. Focus on the basic doctrines, principles, and applications of the gospel."

This moment with my brother made me realize that perhaps I was taking too deep of an approach to my scripture study. And maybe even not a deep enough approach. Since then, I've taken a step back and listened more intently as he's explained the scriptures and how he views them. Sometimes he doesn't understand what he's reading and sometimes the words that come out of his mouth make absolutely no sense at all. But there are moments where the light clicks on and I know that he's gathering up things to add to his bank of knowledge. And the best part about reading scriptures with him is that I've learned far more than I ever imagined.

Always remember to keep the gospel simple. Because that's just what it is: simple. By keeping it that way we protect our love of the gospel and help it grow and thrive. The doctrine and the principles of the Church has never changed, nor will it. But it's when we begin to question and wonder that we cover up the simple, but beautiful truth of the gospel.

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Moses 3:19
"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." (emphasis added)