An Abridgment

We started reading, as a family, at the beginning of the Book of Mormon again today. As we read the title page this time, my son, knowing how I hate abridged books, commented on the fact that the Book of Mormon is an abridgment. And so it is. At one time, I had started to keep track of all the times that one of the prophet writers said things along the lines of "I would say more, but there is no room on the plates" or "I would write more, but the spirit stoppeth mine utterance". I finally gave up on the attempt to keep track because there were clearly too many to count.

I loved being able to remind my children of the Savior's words in John 10 concerning his "other sheep". And also of when the Savior as a resurrected being visited the Nephites, He also told them that he had yet other sheep which were not of the fold of Jerusalem or of the Nephites...but other sheep than those. (see also 3 Nephi 15: 17-21.) That is SO cool to me! Not only does this show us the need today for personal and prophetic revelations, but I also hope that someday I will get to see and read the records of the visits of the Savior to these yet other sheep! See 2 Nephi 30:16. As a seeker of truth who really would like to know "all things" one day, it's pretty exciting to know that there is so much more. And as much as I've already been given, I still thrill with the prospect that there is more. How much more the importance, then, to search and to treasure that which I've already been given, particularly in light of the Savior's admonition in Luke 19:26.