Let's Start at the Very Beginning…a Very Good Place to Start…

As I anticipated starting this challenge this week I was getting really excited!  All this past week I have been looking forward to starting on Sunday - September 21st.  I figured I'd get started in the morning - right away.  However, as life generally goes - my plans didn't flow as I had hoped and it wasn't until I got my kids down for bed tonight that I had the chance to get started on my reading.

I sat down at the kitchen table with my "supplies" - a new notebook for notes, a pen, a scripture marker, my Book of Mormon and the 90 Day Challenge chart. I was ready.

However, as I stared at the reading chart, I realized that the reading assignment listed started in 1st Nephi chapter 1 verse 1.  Was that really the BEGINNING of The Book of Mormon? I sat and thought for a moment…Technically the start of the reading would begin there - but what about the Introduction, or The Testimony of the Witnesses? To me THIS was the beginning of the challenge - a way to remind myself what The Book of Mormon really is, and where it came from.

So I decided to take a couple of extra minutes to re-read these parts of The Book of Mormon - and I am SO glad that I did! I'm grateful that I listened to that little extra prompting to really start at the very beginning.  As I read in the Introduction I came across this part (in speaking of Joseph Smith receiving the plates to translate The Book of Mormon):  

"On September 21, 1823, the same Moroni, then a glorified, resurrected being, appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith and instructed him relative to the ancient record and its destined translation into the English language."

As I read this I got chills. I looked at today's date - September 21st, 2014.  One hundred and ninety one years ago the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith on this day to explain to him about the plates he would be translating, and the purpose of The Book of Mormon! 

It could just be a coincidence, but it felt more like a reminder that Heavenly Father is personally mindful of me.  I was starting something that is important to me for the next 90 days, and the date seemed to be important at that moment.  It was one of those small tender mercies that make my heart grateful for times I can listen to the spirit's little whisperings.  

As I read the first day's reading (1st Nephi 1-3) I was reminded of Nephi's courage, and his goodness.  Nephi didn't question what his father asked of him, and didn't murmur.  He had faith, was obedient, and trusted in The Lord.  He knew that The Lord wouldn't ask anything of him (or us) that he wouldn't prepare a way for us to accomplish.  (1st Nephi 3:7) Heavenly Father doesn't expect impossible things from us. He gives us commandments and situations that might feel impossible - but He is there for us, and if we have faith and trust in him - like Nephi did - we will be able to do what He asks of us!

I can't wait for this coming week, and the great things we will read about Nephi and his family!