“Thou hast also made our words powerful and great, even that we cannot write them; wherefore, when we write we behold our weakness, and stumble because of the placing of our words; and I fear lest the Gentiles shall mock at our words. And when I had said this, the Lord spake unto me, saying: Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness;” (Ether 12:25-26). There has been no shortage of mockery of the Book of Mormon, both by those who have read it and those who have not. There's even a hit Broadway show dedicated to mocking the Book of Mormon in particular and the Church and Members who believe in it. For those of us who have been tempted to poke fun at some of the quirks in the writing of the Book of Mormon, we are indeed acting like fools when we mock these words. I am especially sensitive to the fears and insecurities that Moroni brings up in these verses. I can't tell you how many times in the last three years that I've been writing these Daily Spiritual Thoughts where I have beheld the weakness in my writing, and stumbled because of the placing of my words, and feared lest those who would read it should mock at my words. Almost never does the final product look anything quite like it does in my head when I am learning eternal truths from the Spirit. But the actual words I use and the order in which I use them is not really the point. Only a fool would try to read my or Moroni’s or any other person's writings about spiritual matters only on their own merits. When we write about the Lord and His eternal truths, the actual words we use only matter insofar as we are laboring with all of our might to capture the essence of the indescribable truths that we experience when we are being given pure knowledge from the Holy Ghost. When we read the inspired words of others, the words themselves should only be a jumping off point. For those of us who are meek enough to recognize that the actual vocabulary and turns of phrase are the gateway to spiritual insight and Heavenly knowledge, then the Savior's grace is sufficient to transform the weak words we are reading into a strong testimony of eternal truths. If we are mocking the words written by men and women who were filled with the Holy Ghost and wrote the thoughts and feelings flooding their hearts and minds to the very best of their ability, then we got stuck at the gate and have deprived ourselves of the opportunities to feast upon the words of Christ and denied the Holy Ghost the chance to teach us the truth of all things, and we truly do have reason to mourn. I know that I have often struggled with the wording of particular passages of scripture, but I also know that when I am inclined to be meek rather than to mock, I am much more likely to discover the hidden strength behind the apparent weaknesses in the Book of Mormon and other inspired writings.
