by Annette Lyon

In a final scene of The Last Battle, the last of C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, some dwarves sit near Aslan, who provides a “glorious feast” for them. The dwarves, however, firmly believe they’re in a stable. They see and taste only the kinds of things they imagine would be in a stable: hay, water from a donkey’s trough, raw cabbage leaves, a piece of turnip. In the scriptures, we have a glorious feast provided for us. Do we see and taste little more than damp hay and turnips?

We’ve been commanded to “feast upon the words of Christ” (2 Nephi 32:3), but often we see that commandment as a chore. It’s one more—boring—thing we need to do. Something else to check off our to-do lists, a burden. It doesn’t have to be that way. This season of Thanksgiving is the time to change how you’ve been reading the scriptures.

Pick one of the ideas below to change things up. You’ll feast on more than turkey and pumpkin pie and you’ll find thanksgiving for treasures found in a scriptural feast.

Forget Chapter Breaks

The scriptures weren’t originally transcribed with formal verses and chapters, so while those things are convenient, sometimes they can get in the way of understanding. One year I read the Book of Mormon differently: each day, I read two pages. After turning a page, I finished the verse I was on then stopped. When I came to a chapter break mid-page, I kept going.

This method brought the events and storyline into sharper focus. I was more aware of how events and feelings connected to one another, things that had previously been mentally separated by a big chapter break. I found new insights and understanding.

Study a Word or Theme

Select a doctrine or topic you want to learn more about. Start underlining words relating to it. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how often the theme comes up, in what ways, and how much you learn about it while you’re looking for it and again later, when it’s already marked.

During a religion class, the teacher got me fascinated with how the scriptures are filled with covenants, temples, and teachings about them. I took that as my topic. With a green marking pen, I underlined every word that, to me, related to covenants or temples. The list began with the obvious covenant, oath, promise, temple, and priesthood. Soon more words jumped out at me, like house, mountain, anoint, tabernacle, ordinance, and cleanse. I paid closer attention to times the Lord makes promises, marking promises made and key words such as if . . . shall, raise my hand, witness, etc.

The longer I went on this journey, the more words I found to mark. Fifteen years (and several times through the scriptures) later, I’m still finding new words to add, and I’m continually learning more about this important topic. You don’t need to commit to one theme for fifteen years, but picking one to focus on for even a short time can give a deeper knowledge than you would have had otherwise.

A Footnote Journey

A single footnote can take a single study session to a new level—and into every standard work. Find an interesting word and look up all the references to it. Then look up the references in those verses, and so on. Eventually, you’ll circle back to the same verse you started with, and by that time, you’ll have a greater understanding of the topic.

Once when reading the account in 3 Nephi where the people hear the Father’s voice and it “pierces” them to the very center, I looked up the footnotes by “pierce.” The scripture trail led me to instances where people are struck by the Spirit.

I noticed that whenever the people were righteous, the word used was pierce or something similar, indicating that the message went straight to the center of their hearts. But when the wicked felt the Spirit strongly, it had more painful, violent words associated with it, such as being “cut to the heart” (for example, Mosiah 13:7). In both cases, the Spirit is doing the same thing—reaching the heart. But the recipient experiences something different. While the righteous feel deeply, the wicked feel wounded and hurt, for as Nephi said, the wicked “take the truth to be hard” (1 Nephi 16:2). Without reading all of those instances back-to-back in a twenty-minute period, I never would have had that insight.

It’s time to partake and be filled with the glorious feast of the scriptures. Don’t let them be merely turnips and dirty water that you nibble on while making a face. Instead, fill up on the delicacies found within the pages sitting on your night stand.