MR says: It's incredible how much power and meaning can come through in just a few words. Check out these surprisingly short, sweet, and insightful verses.
And for more incredible lines from the scriptures, check out "30 of the Most Beautiful Lines in the Scriptures."
Every once in a while, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints find themselves in a position where they are spontaneously asked to share a spiritual message. As has been said, “when the time for performance arrives, the time for preparation is past.”[i] As a youth, I overcame this dilemma by memorizing the shortest scriptures I could find to have ready at a moment’s notice. Now as an adult, I’ve found that many of these scriptures are actually quite profound.
Below is just a sample of some of the short but meaningful scriptures I have come across in study throughout my life and as I searched for hidden gems over the past few weeks for this post.
1 Nephi 13:22, “And I said unto him: I know not.”
After the prophet Lehi recounts his vision of the tree of life to his family (see 1 Nephi 8), his son Nephi also desires to see the vision. Nephi’s desire is answered a few chapters later with four subsequent chapters in which the Spirit of the Lord shows Nephi not only the tree of life but also essentially the entire story of the earth from Christ’s birth to the modern day. As a missionary trying to develop my teaching, I noticed that the Spirit teaches Nephi primarily by asking questions. While that’s a good lesson, what has struck me more recently is Nephi’s humility and teachability in responding to those questions. More than once, his answer is “I don’t know.” As an academic, I think about that humility in the context of our world of “the learned [who] think they are wise” (2 Nephi 9:28), and it is a powerful reminder that admitting ignorance is really the only way to ensure continued learning. Related to spiritual things, those who claim to know everything already live in danger of missing out on some of the most profound and meaningful principles that God has to offer us. On the other hand, if we desire to learn and admit what we do not yet know, we have the promise that “the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto [us], by the power of the Holy Ghost”(1 Nephi 10:19).
Images from Aggieland Mormons.
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