📖 Don’t Miss the Forest for the Trees

Sometimes I think I’ve read too many books. Chiasms, lost records, corrected revelations, translators in Brazil… it can feel like a library card straight to heaven if I just study hard enough.

But then I look at a family I know. They’re simple, humble, close to the Savior. Their children are so spiritually awake that even a six-year-old once put his hand on me and spoke words of blessing more powerful than any conference talk I’ve heard. It knocked me over—in the best way.

That’s when it hit me. All my digging and comparing and tracking is good. It strengthens faith. But if I’m not careful, I can miss the whole point: the Savior is already here, already speaking, already blessing through the pure in heart.

🕊️ The Core is Simple
Helaman 5:12 reminds us the Rock is Christ. Not a stack of manuscripts, not a perfected chiasmus, not a hidden record under lock and key. Just Him.
2 Nephi 31 gives the path so clear a child can walk it: faith, repentance, baptism of fire, Holy Ghost, pressing forward.

🔥 The Records Are Rivers
I’ve learned the Nemenhah, the Books of Remembrance, the Sealed Records, all flow from the same spring. They testify. They invite. But they are not the Source. If they start to pull me into agitation or confusion, that’s my cue to step back, breathe, and listen. His voice calms the waters.

🌳 The Fruit, Not the Bark
When Lehi dreamed of the tree, he didn’t sit down to measure the trunk rings. He reached for the fruit. That’s what this family has shown me: it doesn’t take a scholar to walk with Christ—it takes a humble heart and a hand stretched out to Him.

So yes, I’ll keep studying. Yes, I’ll keep testing and comparing. But I refuse to lose the forest for the trees. Because in the end, Zion will not be built on research notes, but on people who hear and obey the Voice.

And sometimes that Voice comes from the mouth of a six-year-old.