Fifteen Second Rule

I came home from a late meeting at church where the president of our quorum explained how he'd challenged himself to find 15 seconds to read in the Book of Mormon each day. Think about it, you can have a program on the television, one which has captured your attention; then plan for an up coming commercial break where you run to the kitchen for snack or take a bathroom break if needed with time enough to spare to get back to your program.

Are you telling me you can’t find 15 seconds in each day where you can dedicate 15 seconds to read one line out of the Book of Mormon? He then reminded everyone how we’d been challenged to read a minimum of 20 minutes each day; but how so many excuses had been found for other interests. “Start with 15 seconds.”

In the 8th grade I wasn’t much of a student; all the same one of my English teachers read us a story about a young man our age who needed to go use the restroom during class. His teacher explained how it was time to discipline his needs and how class would only last 15 minutes longer and denied his request.

Many years later that young man was serving on the Indianapolis, the ship which delivered the atomic bomb which was dropped on Japan. The young man recounted how the ship was sunk by a torpedo and those who survived were left to float for days in the open ocean with little food or potable water.

Tempted with each passing hour to drink from the ocean, he remembered the words of his teacher, that he could discipline his needs with a little extra effort. The hours turned to days and many of his shipmates perished; all the while he remembered Mrs. Dove’s lesson that he could do anything he put his mind to.

I wish I could pass this along to my 8th grade English teacher; but I’ve long since forgotten her name. It would be nice to let her know her efforts to teach even a poor student like me were not wasted.

Would it be worth investing 15 seconds to unravel the mysteries of God? What about 20 minutes then, would that be worth learning what the Lord wants us to know; about the history of His children, the world and the ways of the great deceiver? There’s plenty of time to read the newspaper, catch up on email, Facebook and text a friend; could you find a few minutes each day to study the Book of Mormon?

The closing hymn for this evening’s meetings was one of my favorites, If you could hie to Kolob . I’ll include it as a music video and hope it stays active; not sure if the Mormon Tabernacle Choir likes folks posting their performances on blogs. The last time I posted High on a Mountain Top, the version performed at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the feed for the video was cancelled.