Family Discussion on the Scriptures

My favorite part of New Years was our annual family meeting late Sunday night where we each get a turn to talk about our feelings and whatever comes to mind.  However, Alan channeled the discussion this time and asked us all to share how the scriptures have touched our lives.  When he first gave that discussion prompt I thought, "What can I possibly share?"  However, within a matter of seconds my mind was flooded with memories of early morning family scripture study, groggy-eyed and scratchy-voiced, reading around our creaky oak table, maybe not processing all the words or stories, but holding on to that feeling, knowing that the scriptures were essential to our daily living.  I remembered the guilt of not taking President Hinckley's challenge to read The Book of Mormon and consequently slipping away from the spirit little by little that year until I kneeled and wept, broken and repentant and ready to make Him a priority in my life again.  I remembered happy hour-long studies in my white-tiled room in Mexico, long after my host family had gone to sleep and feeling more at peace with life and God and myself than I had in a long, long time.  I remembered that first year of marriage with Burke and how quickly we learned that if we missed a day of studying the scriptures together there was a  noticeable change in how we acted and reacted to challenges, consequently, we have missed probably less than a dozen days in our entire marriage - I attribute our happy marriage to this dedication to scripture reading, temple attendance, prayer and service to one another.  After just minutes I realized, "What can I possibly share that is not attributed to lessons learned through the scriptures?" It was an incredibly uplifting hour of sharing sacred testimonies and feelings of love for Heavenly, Jesus Christ, the scriptures and one another.  I feel so privileged to have married into such a wonderful family.