Inspired Scripture Reading

Have you ever heard the story of the man who was having a difficult time in his life and decided to look for an answer in the Bible? He decided that he would close his eyes, open upon the scriptures, stick his finger in the book, read the verse that his finger touched and do whatever the verse said to do. What can be more inspired than that? Well, when he opened the book and blindly selected a verse, he read:

"And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself."
~ Matthew 27:5

Somewhat shaken by this, he quickly determined that he needed a better course of action than that. So he decided to give it one more shot. He closed his eyes, opened the book again, stuck his finger in and read the following verse:

"...Go, and do thou likewise."
~ Luke 10:37

My wife and I had a similar experience last night. We were headed to bed a little later than I had planned, but my wife was feeling very amorous. As she made her intentions quite clear, I had to gently refuse as I was going to be getting less than five hours of sleep and I was already pretty run down. She understood and we decided we had better read scriptures and pray really quick so I could get some rest.

I asked her if she had any favorite passages she would like to read that night and she didn't, so we decided to give the inspired method a shot, much like the man above. I happened to open up to the Book of Mormon and both of our eyes fell on the center of the exact same verse where we both read:

"...In the name of the Almighty God, I command you that ye touch me not...."
~ 1 Nephi 17:48

We both burst out into laughter at the timing of that "inspired" bit of scripture. We decided to tempt fate as the man above did and give it a second shot. Our results were far better than his:

"Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy of him who created all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all. Amen."
~ Mosiah 5:15