angels and beasts and eyes, oh my!

Jun 11, 2009

Last night we had our best scripture study EVER! We have been reading scriptures as a family for years and we have had some fabulous discussions, but last night was THE best. For the past few days we have been reading D & C 76, which is full of power and truth and testimony. I think we spent 5 or 6 days on that one section because of all the questions our children had as we read along, such as “what is a son of perdition,” “who goes to the telestial kingdom,” and “what does it mean to deny the Holy Ghost?”

Last night, we got to Section 77, which is Joseph’s inquiries about The Book of Revelation. Now, I have a daughter who is obsessed with Lord of the Rings, obsessed with imaginary worlds, obsessed with dragons and beasts. So, I said, “Wow, this is an interesting revelation. It’s all about beasts covered with eyes and wings. Creatures with four heads. Flying things. Immediately my children were interested. Then, I told them all about John the Beloved and how he was given an amazing vision and how he used symbolism to share his vision with the world. I turned to Revelation and started reading in chapter 4 about the beasts with eyes and six wings who praise God. Then I asked them “what do you think John is trying to tell us, what are these beasts?” The guesses started pouring out of the girls. They were so excited! Then I said “This is just what Joseph was going through, he wanted to know what John meant, but he didn’t know if his guesses were right, so he prayed and Jesus answered his questions, explaining what each thing meant.” Back to Section 77, where we asked the first question, then read and discussed the answer. Then on to the second and so on. Many times we had more questions about the answers given, so then we were diving into the footnotes to get more information. The girls treated this as a great treasure hunt. They were flipping through their scriptures so fast trying to figure out the answers, I almost couldn’t keep up with them! We had a Harris family dinner last night, so we didn’t get home till about 10:15. I had thought, we’ll just read a couple of verses and go to bed since it is so late, but as soon as we started we couldn’t stop. I kept asking “should we do another question?” and they would say “YES!” I couldn’t very well stop with that much enthusiasm, could I? We finally finished around 11:30. Our bodies were exhausted, but our minds were full of great ideas to think about all night long in our dreams.

I will try to remember this night when scripture study is not so joyous!

p.s. By the way, if you are looking for a great analogy for D & C 76:94 (they will see as they are seen and know as they are known), we talked about how if you are grumpy, you tend to see others as grumpy. If you are kind, you tend to see others as kind. Then we talked about Sauron from Lord of the Rings and how he wanted the ring so desperately that he couldn’t imagine anyone not wanting it. He couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to destroy it because he would never do that. He could only see those things that were within himself.