Inspiration: A Gift of the Scriptures

When I was 10 years old my parents gave me my very own scriptures.  They had previously belonged to my Aunt Diane, and for a while the cover still had her name on them.  Soon my Dad had her name taken off and my name put on.  The scriptures were a pretty maroon color.  They even came with a matching case.  They were also huge.  They had to have been about 10 inches tall and 6 or 7 inches across. They weighed a ton which I liked because when you are 10 physical weight equals importance.  Best of all they were a "quad" meaning the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price were all in one book.  None of the other kids my age had their own quad. All through the rest of Primary and the Young Women I proudly took those scriptures to church with me each week.

In 9th grade I started taking seminary.  I was faced with a dilemma. I needed scriptures in seminary, but I also needed a set of scriptures to study at home.  At first I brought my beloved quad with me to seminary and then took it home on weekends. But gradually I stopped doing that.  The scriptures were just too big to comfortably carry around in addition to all my school books.

By the time I was a Sr in high school my quad stayed at home.  In seminary I used my "girls camp scriptures."  These were scriptures that were old enough to comfortably take camping.  They weren't fancy or even very nice looking anymore.  The Book of Mormon had been my dad's at some point, and his notes were in the margins.  The cover was pretty beat up so I sewed a new one out of pink suede.  The bible was one from DI that I'd bought so I wouldn't have to worry about it getting wet.  It had the name Linda Kay on the cover.  She'd marked her scriptures in crayon.  I sewed a suede cover for that book as well, but it didn't fit quite right and I never had time to fix it.

These old scriptures became my favorite scriptures.  They were the ones that ended up with all the good markings. When I graduated from seminary they became my church scriptures.  My old quad was still important to me, but it was too big and heavy to be of any use on a daily basis.  Eventually I gave it to my Mom who liked the bigger print in it.

For almost 10 years I carried around a pink suede Book of Mormon and a Bible that had someone else's name on it. I took them to church each week, and proudly read out of them.  At night I'd read them.  One year I read the Bible dictionary for my scripture study and marked it up almost more than the actual scriptures.

And then I had twins.  I stopped bringing my scriptures to church because the chances of opening them were next to nothing.  I also started doing my personal scripture study with the girls each night.  I'd just read out of a regular Book of Mormon that I kept in their room.  My old beat up scriptures were forgotten.

I didn't realize how forgotten they were until I found a pink suede Book of Mormon under the Relief Society Room pulpit.  I left it there after teaching 2 months before, and I hadn't even missed it.  I soon discovered that my Linda Bible wasn't in my scripture case either.  

On the first Sunday in February I taught again.  As just a silly aside I mentioned that I'd misplaced my scriptures after the last time I taught.  I told everyone about my missing DI Linda Bible and jokingly asked them to be on the look out for it. I didn't think I'd see it again, but I knew I could get another one from the DI.

The next Sunday, Sister J who is one of the Sr Missionaries, came up to me while I was trying to get the girls settled in nursery.  They were crying and I was distracted.  So when she said, "I have something for you" I didn't even have time to think.  She put a set of scriptures down in front of me.  It had the name "Valerie Illguth" engraved in gold on the cover.  The first thing that went through my mind was, "That's not mine.  It doesn't say Linda."  And then I realized what I was looking at.

"Oh my gosh!"  was all I could say.  Sister J gave told me she loved me, and hurried out of the room while I was still in shock.  I just stood there and looked at the perfect sized maroon quad that had my own name on it.  I couldn't believe what I saw.

Sister J didn't know it, but she gave me more than just scriptures.  I'd been feeling a little alone the last few days.  I was wondering how I was going to handle taking care of three kids under the age of 2.  In theory, I knew that the members of my Branch would be willing to help me, but I didn't know for sure.  I was wondering if I would be able to depend on anyone.  This gift let me know that I was being watched out for, that the people of my Branch would take care of me, and that they loved me.

I know that we can always find the answers to our problems by reading our scriptures.  Now I know that sometimes scriptures themselves are the answer.  

And what about the Linda Bible?  Well, my visiting teacher found it a few days after I was given my new set. So I still have my old scriptures with all the markings and notes I've put into them over the past 10 or so years.  And I have a brand new set that I can start reading and marking up.