By Brittanie Morris
What is the most valuable substance or commodity in the world?? Water, was Elder David A. Bednar?s response to college-age young adults on Sunday in a CES Fireside.
Elder Bednar told young adults that in reading, studying and seaching the scriptures, they could come to know the Savior better and fill their lives with His ?living water?.
Living water is defined as the Lord, Jesus Christ and his gospel. Elder Bednar said that young adults can fill their lives with a reservoir of living water, as they read the scriptures beginning to end, search the scriptures by topic and look for connections, patterns and themes.
Quoting Elder Boyd K. Packer, Elder Bednar said that we are the generation prophesied that the scriptures would touch. He said that this is a generation of greater gospel scholarship than any before.
?We are more immersed in the scriptures?but we still have a great distance to travel,? Elder Bednar said.
Elder Bednar?s first suggested study step, reading the scriptures from beginning to end, initiates the flow of living water into our lives. He said that by learning the characters, stories and sequences in the scriptures we experience a breadth of knowledge.
Searching the scriptures by topic, Elder Bednar?s second suggested step in reading, studying and searching the scriptures, builds upon our reading and helps us to dig into and explore the scriptures in more depth.
Elder Bednar said we can increase the flow rate of living water in our lives by asking questions such as ?what is faith in the Savior??, ?why is faith the first principle of the gospel??, ?why or how does faith lead to repentance?? and other questions.
But these two steps are simply pre-requisites for Elder Bednar?s final suggested step: searching the scriptures for connections, patterns and themes.
Searching for connections, patterns and themes builds and adds to our understanding by broadening our perspective. Elder Bednar said this study technique will ?open the flood gates?.
Within this third study technique, Elder Bednar makes three very important distinctions that augment each other.
He defines a connection as a relationship between ideas, people, things or events; a pattern as a plan, model or standard used as a guide for making something; and themes, the most demanding and rigorous way to search the scriptures, as unifying qualities or ideas that are broader and more comprehensive than either of the previous two. Themes, Elder Bednar said, lead us to fundamental principles of salvation.
Elder Bednar pointed out that no extensive formal education is necessary in applying these study techniques.
He said ?any honest seeker of truth? can apply these methods to individual scripture study.
But, Elder Bednar said, the way to salvation and safety in our lives is the difference between continually holding fast versus clinging.
Holding fast constitutes prayerful and consistent use of the scriptures in our lives, Elder Bednar said. Clinging may be characteristic of periodic study whereas holding fast is the ingredient to a healthy spiritual body.
Just as it does not make sense to periodically fill up with water and then live for days in dehydration, it does not make sense to do so in our scripture study, Elder Bednar said.
?Constant flow is far superior to ? sipping,? he said.