My grandparents on my mom’s side of the family both passed away in the last few years. But I inherited my grandpa’s scriptures and every time I see them (they sit on one of my bookshelves), I think of them and the great example they both were to me in regular, every day life and in their testimonies of the gospel.
When my grandma passed away (a few years after my grandpa), as my mom and her siblings were sorting through the things they left behind, my mom asked me if there was anything that was important to me that I would like to request to have given to me. There were lots of memories of great times and the “things” that represented them from our times at grandma and grandpa’s house. But I went back to a memory from college.
I was attending an institute (church/scripture study) class at college. It was twice a week and for some reason, I had the hardest time remembering to take my scriptures with me on those days. My grandparents lived closer to the college than I did and I can still remember the first time that I forgot my scriptures and realized that I didn’t have time to go all the way home, but I could quickly get to grandma and grandpa’s house and see if I could borrow a set of scriptures. They, of course, said yes and my grandpa handed me his scriptures. That was the first of many times that I would leave the college campus and head to my grandparents’ house to borrow scriptures. My grandparents would chuckle at my forgetfulness and I would get a little bit of a visit in with them as well as a second visit when I returned them after classes were over that day.
After my grandpa passed away, those scriptures sat on the table next to their bed and even though I lived far way, on the occasions that I did get a chance to visit, I always noticed them there and thought of my grandpa and of those visits with my grandparents.
So, I love having his scriptures with their worn leather case in my home.
But inside his scriptures there are no markings. No notes or underlined passages. I guess it just wasn’t my grandpa’s “thing” to mark in his scriptures. Although I love having them and they make me feel closer to him and my grandma, if they were marked in his handwriting, it would be an even greater treasure.
I’ve been thinking about that.
And I’ve been hearing all these great ideas as we embark on a new year of studying the scriptures at church. And seeing people doing some fantastic scripture journaling — I would love to be so creative and artsy!
And with all that in mind, I have decided on a new goal for myself . . . a legacy that I want to leave behind:
Each time I read The Book of Mormon (could be done with the Bible as well), I want to use a new, fresh, clean journal edition so that I build up a shelf full of copies. When I die, I will leave behind my written testimony in my thoughts and feelings on the pages of each of those books that can be passed down to my posterity. I may get through 1 copy that they can all share (and fight over – lol), 5 copies (one for each of my kids), or dozens of copies that could be passed down to grandkids as well. I’m not too worried about that right now. For now, I’m just starting with one and when that one is done, I’ll do another, and another for the rest of my life. Maybe, while my kids are still young and living at home, they’ll even pick one up from time to time. As I’ve started, my kids have already been intrigued and looking at my copy with the extra wide margins and the notes I’m making there. Or maybe, one day, grandkids will come to my home to visit and pick one up to look through or read. How awesome would that be?
These journal editions of The Book of Mormon are great because they leave plenty of room to write your notes, thoughts, and feelings as you read. And because I love the artwork that I’ve seen in some scripture journaling but I’m not quite confident in my own creativity yet, I found these awesome Sketchnotes that are offered for free over on www.alivelyhope.com. I am just printing them out in draft/quick print quality on clear/frosted sticker paper (you can even color it with colored pencils!) and they are a great addition to my journaling!
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