Did She Really Just Say That?

I decided to give my testimony at church today. Gabby has been asking for while if she can go to the pulpit and impart more of her wisdom. She was thrilled when I said I was going up there. If I'd planned on giving my testimony before church, I may have talked with Gabby about what a testimony is and isn't. I didn't and had to take my chances. I told Gabby that she should say something about Jesus. I don't want to be a parent who feeds a child their testimony. If Gabby's going to talk, she should just say what's in her heart. Gabby whispered she wanted to tell a story and I told her she had to talk about Jesus.

I lift Gabby up to the microphone at the pulpit. She moves her mouth as close as she can and says, "Well, I think Jesus is really handsome."

Game over! I say, "Say amen, Gabby. SAY AMEN! AMEN!" She was trying to say more, but I decided that was quite enough. Besides, I didn't want her teaching false doctrine to the entire congregation as she had to the Primary when she gave her talk in January.

I gave my testimony with Gabby dancing and making silly faces by my side. When I finished, she asked if she could talk again. I declined and had to drag her out of the chapel. I will add that Gabby is really intrigued whether or not girls are pretty and boys are handsome. So for her to think that Jesus is handsome means she thinks highly of him and approves.

Why am I posting pictures of my scriptures? They were on my mind last night. Indulge me!

The set on the left I bought myself when I was 15 on a temple trip to Dallas. They were my 2nd set. I'm not sure what became of the 1st set I got when I was 8. Anyway, I used them through 3 years of early morning seminary, 3 years of religion classes at BYU and up through most of 2005. They are incredibly dear to me. They are highlighted, filled with post-it notes of quotations, and many of the margins are filled with my thoughts. There are several pages stained with my tears. The cover and binding have been super glued back on several times. There are pages that fall out and others that are torn. They even helped prevent an injury once when I was in a bike wreck. I had them in my backpack and they absorbed the impact as I went flying into the street. I learned so much getting lost in the pages and they helped form who I am. You can see how worn they became. They were definitely the best thing I bought during my teens.

I love my new set and have formed an attachment to them over the few years I've put them to use. They're a little more organized. I use certain colors to highlight for different things and its margins are slowly being being filled with new thoughts. There are tear-stained pages as well. I still come back to the old set sometimes though. I'm not the best at memorizing chapter and verse of the scriptures and quoting them verbatim. But I still know them. I know where a verse is by the color I've marked it, if the page is torn, or if it has a post-note by it, and the side of the page it's on. When I first got my new set, it was hard to study from them and find the verses I had in mind as quickly.

I'm teaching Gospel Principles now. I was laughing at myself yesterday as I prepared my lesson as I had to have both sets out to study and prepare. I would read the same verses from each set to see what I noted 10 years ago versus 1 year ago. The scriptures are such a miracle to me, how the exact same words can mean such different things at different times, how different words and themes jump off the page. I'm just so grateful to have them and that there's always something new to learn from them. I'm enjoying wearing out my new set and finding new meaning in them.