As I Search the Holy Scriptures

I was raised a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In my adolescence, I lived in Indiana in a town called Muncie. My high school had about 1200 students, and my grade had about 300. I was the only Latter-day Saint in my grade. Everyone knew that I was one. In fact, one nickname for me was Mor-Mi, as in Mormon Mimi. It was a whole thing. To demonstrate the extent of how not secret my religion was: if a boy wanted to date me, I gave him a copy of the “For the Strength of Youth” pamphlet, and I often had friends attend church with me, as well as youth activities and dances. I even had one friend go to early morning seminary with me for a year and a half! If you looked through my yearbooks, amongst all of the messages to “never change” and “have a great summer,” you’ll find a number that say something akin to “it’s really cool how you live your faith.” 

So I was weird, and my friends came to church with me, and I often attended my friends’ churches too: Baptist, Quaker, Catholic, Methodist, Unitarian Universalist, and nondenominational to name a few. It was very interesting to go to church with them and see the similarities between how they worshipped God and how I did. It led to many conversations about dress, traditions, rituals, and beliefs. One area where we differed was the church organization and curriculum. I would travel a lot in the summer, and

I had moved a lot in my childhood, but whether I was attending church in Michigan or New York or Brazil, I would have an approximate idea of what the lesson would be, because it would follow the manual. This was very different from my friends whose church lessons were less dictated by a central organization and more based on local decisions and preferences. When we were on vacation or when we moved, I always knew that the lessons in primary or seminary or young women’s would be taught from the same manuals and that all across the world all members of my Church were receiving the same messages during the year. 

However, between those manuals, there was little correlation. When you got in your car after church, and the family might try to discuss what they had learned, there would be many different answers. Perhaps one child might have learned about service and another about tithing. The mom might have learned about characteristics of Christ and the dad about how to love one another. While all wonderful topics, there was no harmony from class to class. 

In 2018, during our Church’s General Conferences, some major changes were made to the church’s schedule and programs. It was announced that in January 2019, worldwide, our church would switch from a 3-hour meeting block to a 2-hour meeting block. More instruction in the home was recommended, and the structured home and visiting teaching programs were switched to a more personal ministering program. The “Come, Follow Me” curriculum was shared for the first time with the church. 

This was huge. 

Our Church has always valued reading the scriptures. As it says in John 5:39, we believe we should “Search the scriptures; for in them ye . . . have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”

D&C 26:1 “Behold, I say unto you that you shall let your time be devoted to the studying of the scriptures.”

D&C 33:16 “And the . . . the holy scriptures are given of me for your instruction.”

Quoting Prophet Russell M. Nelson from the October 2018 Conference: 

"As Latter-day Saints, we have become accustomed to thinking of “church” as something that happens in our meetinghouses, supported by what happens at home. We need an adjustment to this pattern. It is time for a home-centered Church, supported by what takes place inside our branch, ward, and stake buildings.

The long-standing objective of the Church is to assist all members to increase their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and in His Atonement, to assist them in making and keeping their covenants with God, and to strengthen and seal their families. In this complex world today, this is not easy. The adversary is increasing his attacks on faith and upon us and our families at an exponential rate. To survive spiritually, we need counterstrategies and proactive plans. Accordingly, we now want to put in place organizational adjustments that will further fortify our members and their families.

For many years, Church leaders have been working on an integrated curriculum to strengthen families and individuals through a home-centered and Church-supported plan to learn doctrine, strengthen faith, and foster greater personal worship. Our efforts over these recent years to hallow the Sabbath—to make it a delight and a personal sign to God of our love for Him—will be augmented by the adjustments we will now introduce.

The new home-centered, Church-supported integrated curriculum has the potential to unleash the power of families, as each family follows through conscientiously and carefully to transform their home into a sanctuary of faith. I promise that as you diligently work to remodel your home into a center of gospel learning, over time your Sabbath days will truly be a delight. Your children will be excited to learn and to live the Savior’s teachings, and the influence of the adversary in your life and in your home will decrease. Changes in your family will be dramatic and sustaining."

The prophet stated that “the adversary is increasing his attacks on faith.” He continued by saying that as we use the “Come, Follow Me” program and work to transform our homes into sanctuaries of faith, our “Sabbath days will truly be a delight” and the “influence of the adversary” in our lives and homes “will decrease.”

What is the “Come, Follow Me” program that when followed promises so much? It is a coordinated curriculum for the entire church, throughout the whole world, for those of all ages. Boys and girls, men and women, married or single—everyone is asked to use the “Come, Follow Me” program. It is recommended for daily personal study; for study throughout the week in the home as a family; and for study in primary classes, Sunday School classes, youth classes, and seminary classes. When a family rides home after church, the discussion of “what did you learn today” is a very different one now from five years ago, because now we are all studying the same section of the scriptures. And ideally that conversation is occuring all throughout the week rather than just after church, and not just with your family but with your friends too. My family in the US, my friends in other countries, and me here in Mexico—we are all studying the same verses at the same time. 

The program of “Come, Follow Me” rotates through four scripture sections. This past year, 2024, we were studying The Book of Mormon. In 2025, we will study the Doctrine and Covenants, along with church history. In 2023, we studied the New Testament, and in 2022, we studied the Old Testament. 

There are many right ways to implement the “Come, Follow Me” program in your life. Honestly, being given this topic makes me feel a bit like a hypocrite. From 2019 to 2023, our family’s “Come, Follow Me” time was the 15 minutes before the kids caught the bus. That was when we had our family devotionals and tried to study together. Then we lost Jill to early morning seminary. We continued to do “Come, Follow Me” at that time with the other five of us, and we tried to do it at other times as well to have her with us, but it was never regular nor successful. This school year, Jeff is also at early morning seminary, and I leave to drive Jill from church to school, so she can participate in the full seminary lesson, which means that now during the 15 minutes when we used to try to do “Come, Follow Me, Jeff and Jill are finishing up seminary, I’m driving to church, and my younger three kids are alone in the house hopefully getting ready to catch the bus. In the last four months of this new schedule, we have not been successful at finding a new regular time that works. We’ve tried at dinner time and before bed and on Sundays, but nothing has been as regular. However, every time we try is better than not trying at all, and we are striving together.

For me personally, my best time for individual study is after my husband and kids have left the house when the only existing distractions are of my own making. Sometimes I use the audio feature of the Library app to listen to the scripture verses and the “Come, Follow Me” manual. Sometimes I read the digital version, and sometimes I read from my physical copy of the scriptures and the manual. It just depends on what I have going on that day. I think any way to study the scriptures is a good way. On Sundays, I like to have my journal with me to record thoughts that come. It would be better to record thoughts other days of the week as well, but just like all of you, I’m imperfect and striving to endure and progress from where I am.

Mark L. Pace, the Sunday School general president, was asked to speak on the progress of the members of the Church through the “Come, Follow Me” program. In the October 2019 General Conference, he shared the following:

"After nine months of this worldwide scripture study effort, what do we see? We see Latter-day Saints everywhere growing in faith and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. We see individuals and families setting aside time throughout the week to study the words of our Savior. We see improving gospel instruction in our Sunday classes as we study the scriptures at home and share our insights at church. We see greater family joy and unity as we have moved from simply reading the scriptures to studying the scriptures in a profound way.

Studying the scriptures with “Come, Follow Me” as a guide is strengthening our conversion to Jesus Christ and His gospel. We are not simply trading one hour less in church on Sunday for one hour more of scripture study at home. Learning the gospel is a consistent effort throughout the week. As one sister insightfully shared, ‘The goal is not to make church one hour shorter; it is to make church six days longer!’

How can the attacks of the adversary be increasing exponentially while at the same time the influence of the adversary is actually decreasing? It can happen, and it is happening throughout the Church, because the Lord prepares His people against the attacks of the adversary. “Come, Follow Me” is the Lord’s counterstrategy and proactive plan."

It has now been six years of the “Come, Follow Me” curriculum. How has your life changed? It is impossible for me to think of these past five years without thinking of the two years that were dominated by Covid. During all the turmoil that brought to my life, I am especially grateful for the “Come, Follow Me” program. It honestly feels miraculous that it was already in place in time to support us as individuals and families during a time when church was shut down. I never would have imagined the restrictions we lived under during the pandemic, but God could and did, and He was years ahead, inspiring our leaders to prepare and create this curriculum and to shift the focus of gospel learning to our homes.

2025 begins in just a few days. Many of us will probably engage in the practice of New Year’s resolutions, commonly thinking of areas in our lives where we would like to change, to improve, and creating plans to achieve those goals.

The 2025 “Come, Follow Me” begins with a goal. It reads “The aim of all gospel learning and teaching is to deepen our conversion and help us become more like Jesus Christ. For this reason, when we study the gospel, we’re not just looking for new information; we want to become a “new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This means relying on Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to help us change our hearts, our views, our actions, and our very natures.”

The point of reading the scriptures isn’t to be more learned, but that may happen. The point of reading the scriptures isn’t to memorize verses, although that is a useful way to study. The point of reading the scriptures isn’t to get through them; however regular habits of reading them will benefit your life. No, the point of reading the scriptures is to become like Christ, to grow closer to Him and follow His example. So start. Try. Move. Any progress in the right direction is progress in the right direction. Maybe you’ll be amazing and dedicated right from the beginning. Maybe you’re already incredibly disciplined in your scripture study. Maybe you’re a bit more like me and my family, with periods of consistency and periods of floundering. That’s okay too. The Lord loves effort and does not demand earthly perfection. So let’s resolve to be better tomorrow in our study of the scriptures than we were today—however that looks for you. 

As I’ve been pondering this talk, I kept wishing I were singing instead, because as nervous as I get to sing in sacrament meeting, giving a talk is even worse. So as I thought about my topic and lamenting that life isn’t a musical, this is the hymn that came to my head. 

As I search the holy scriptures,

Loving Father of mankind,

May my heart be blessed with wisdom,

And may knowledge fill my mind.

As I search the holy scriptures,

Touch my spirit, Lord, I pray.

May life’s myst’ries be unfolded

As I study day by day.

As I search the holy scriptures,

May thy mercy be revealed.

Soothe my troubled heart and spirit;

May my unseen wounds be healed.

 As I search the holy scriptures,

Help me ponder and obey.

In thy word is life eternal;

May thy light show me the way.

The requests in that song are so beautiful, and I wish them for all of you: being blessed with wisdom, having our brains be filled with knowledge, feeling the Spirit, getting answers to life’s mysteries, having troubled hearts and spirits soothed, having unseen wounds healed, pondering, obeying, and being guided by His light. I leave those promises of reading the scriptures with us in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.