First Thoughts

I sometimes think of my relationship with the Book of Mormon in terms of Robert Frost's "Devotion," a simple poem published in 1928 in a volume called West Running Brook:

The heart can think of no devotion
Greater than being shore to the ocean--
Holding the curve of one position,
Counting an endless repetition.

I've read the Book of Mormon so many times that it sometimes feels as if I am the shore to its ocean, continuously washed with simple waves that hint at a complexity of life just below the surface. The thoughts and feelings that result leave me as impressionable as the wet sand that sits counting the endless repetition of contact. During some periods of my life, it feels as if I've lived in its pages like I would my home, drawing from them a wonderful power and energy that infuses my life with meaning and draws me closer to the Savior and to my family.

Like most who undertake a life-long journey through this book, I've also come to treasure the Book of Mormon for its literary richness. It is a textbook of conversion and redemption, a powerful insight into human nature and potential. And like the fruit Lehi briefly held in vision, the insights we receive just have to be shared. However unremarkable and ordinary my insights are, they are my own devotion, a result of patterns and themes that have made an impression on me through countless repetition and occasional understanding.