What I Would Pay...

I was heading to bed last night and passed by something that caught my eye.  The house was quiet, my mind was clear, and this sight just stopped me in my tracks.  It was Ashlee's Book of Mormon, the same one she's had for about ten years now.  I've seen it a million times, I've picked it up when it was left where it shouldn't be, I've returned it to her room, I've set it on the shelf... but this time I just had to hold it and look at it for a minute.  And then, of course, I had to get the camera.

These scriptures have been used and abused.  I know that some of their wear and tear has come from their accidentally being dropped or maybe even sat on, but the pages are worn because the book has actually been opened and read.  This book wouldn't look this way if it were sitting on a shelf, remaining untouched.  And for that I am so grateful.

I'm grateful for Primary teachers, Sunday School teachers, Young Women leaders, and seminary teachers who have taught her to use them, to mark them, to love them.  And I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father who has blessed her to feel her own witness that the words contained in this book are true.  When these scriptures were purchased years ago, I hoped and prayed that they would be loved and put to use.  And last night I was reminded that they have been.  As I stood there looking at them, in a way I never quite had before, the thought went through my mind, I would pay for these a thousand times over, to know that they're being used.  If any of our kids ever manages to wear their scriptures out so badly that they need new ones, I'll have that purchase made before they can even blink--one of few cases in which I would be thrilled to reward my children for wearing something out.



And then of course this thought popped into my head:

First set of scriptures                                  $73.95
Second set of scriptures                            $73.95
Third, fourth, fifth set of scriptures         $73.95
Knowing they're being used.....                Priceless =)