Seasons and Scriptures

During the late winter of 1982, my daughter Judy convinced me to walk with her each day. In so doing, she taught me that there was beauty in the snow and cold of the winter as surely as in the green fields and heat of summer. Each day we walked over four miles on the back roads of our small town. Each day brought new wonder and joy.

As the season progressed, we watched fields that looked like Christmas cards slip into the green of springtime. Baby lambs were born and were loaded into trucks taking them to the pastures on the hills. Wobbly new colts looked shyly from behind the safety of their mothers as we passed. The seasons took on new meaning for me as I walked those lovely old roads with my daughter, and we grew closer.

Then my daughter’s schedule changed, and I began to walk alone. Using my son’s tape recorder and ear phones and scripture tapes from the library, I walked those daily miles listening to the words of Jesus the Christ, the New Testament, and the Book of Mormon. During the weeks of the summer bean harvest, the Doctrine and Covenants was my constant companion. Then, as summer came to a close, my testimony of Joseph Smith was strengthened as the Pearl of Great Price echoed in my ears.

Autumn found me walking with the Old Testament, and I tried harder to understand the lives of Moses and his wandering people. Finally winter came again—my walking had come a full circle. The ending of one cycle signaled the beginning of another, a year of listening with my ears and my heart to the glorious things my Father in Heaven has to teach me in my daily walks with him. Lorraine Underwood, Salem, Utah

Illustrated by Kay Watson