My Scripture Secret

By Melissa Domeyer Aina

It’s a secret I can’t tell you, but you can find out for yourself what it is.

One of the greatest blessings we receive from being faithful members of the Church is the peace of our Savior. I have felt this peace many times as I have read the scriptures.

I can remember making many goals to complete the Book of Mormon. I made many attempts but would slowly lose interest and then start over again later. It wasn’t until my first year in college that I truly “experimented upon the word” (see Alma 32:27). I began getting up at 6:30 every weekday morning and reading for half an hour. Because I had an allotted time, I didn’t feel anxious to be done.

I began looking forward to reading the scriptures. After I read, I felt happy and peaceful. My whole day was affected. I could more easily keep a prayer in my heart. The Spirit stayed closer than before. My worries did not disappear, but my days really were happier.

I realized I was gaining a testimony of the scriptures. I had no idea that obeying the commandment to read the scriptures would bring me so many blessings. I felt as though I had been let in on a secret that only scripture readers knew.

Alma taught the way to gain a testimony:

“If ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words” (Alma 32:27).

Before I started my experiment, I didn’t really understand why we are commanded to read the scriptures, but I had a little faith—faith enough to read for a short time every day. And, as Alma taught, I gained a testimony.

I know there is nothing I can say to let you in on the secret of the blessings of reading the scriptures, because nobody could tell me. But I promise that if you read them, you will be blessed with peace and happiness despite your trials. Give it a try. Experiment.

• Melissa Domeyer Aina is a member of the Newhall First Ward, Valencia California Stake.

Photograph By Welden C. Andersen