Local Leader Message
Like Brushing Your Teeth: The Benefits of Reading the Book of Mormon Daily
If you will read a few verses every day, I promise that you will experience the promise that was made by the prophet Alma—the book will begin to become delicious unto you.
My wife and I are at a very exciting point in our lives, with two teenage girls in our home who have so many questions, and I am always amazed at my beloved wife, Busi’s, answers. She just never gets tired or impatient with them. A little while ago she explained the importance of reading the scriptures daily and used an analogy that has stuck with me.
She started by asking them how often they brush their teeth. They looked at her as if to say, “What kind of question is that?” Almost instantly they answered her question with, “Mom, that’s easy—we do it at least once a day!” She then proceeded by asking them, “Why don’t you just brush them once every week or once a month?”
I wondered where this conversation was going until she explained to them how brushing our teeth can be compared to reading the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. We don’t read once a week or once a month. In the same way, we don’t wake up one day and read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover. Instead, we must strive to follow the counsel from living prophets and apostles by making time as families and individuals to read daily from its sacred pages.
President Boyd K. Parker (1924–2015) once said, “In a world ever more dangerous . . . the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, has the nourishing power to heal starving spirits of the world” 1 . When we look around us, whether it be while watching television or reading newspapers or just going through mainstream social media, we are forever bombarded with a host of negative things happening around us. I have learned that as my family and I have made time to read daily from the Book of Mormon, we have grown closer to each other and have had an increased desire to be more Christlike.
The Prophet Joseph Smith has this to say regarding the Book of Mormon, “a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” 2 I know that this promise from the Prophet of the Restoration is true. I also know that President Russell M. Nelson’s invitation for us to hear Him 3 will become a reality as we read daily from the Book of Mormon. From its pages we will hear the Saviour’s words and His promises. We will also hear His teachings as taught by His prophets. From those teachings we will gain the assurance of His divinity, especially of what we can do to learn of Him and to become like Him.
If you have not started reading daily from the Book of Mormon, please don’t get discouraged, or more importantly, do not give up. Please make a resolution to start reading a few verses every day. The most important thing is to start somewhere, and I promise you that once you start, you will experience the promise that was made by the prophet Alma in Alma 32:28 when he said, “Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if you give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if you do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breast; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—it must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.”
I testify of the power of daily reading from the Book of Mormon. I have seen the fruits of it in my life and in the lives of many of my friends and loved ones.
Clement M. Matswagothata was called as an Area Seventy in April 2018. He is married to Busisiwe Novelty Buthelezi; they are the parents of three children. Elder and Sister Matswagothata reside in Gaborone, Botswana.