The story behind the pink scriptures

It all started with a pain in my elbow. Really, it did.

It got so sore I was having trouble lifting, opening things, even sleeping. I went to a couple doctors. One suggested a cortisone shot, which did not remedy the situation. Another suggested a surgery that is only 20% effective. I’m not a big fan of surgery when it is 100% effective. I went to my family doctor, he’s not an orthopedic but he gets me.

I explained the situation. I told him it was in so much pain I couldn’t even roll over when I slept. I asked him what should we do. He asked me what I was doing several times a day that required lifting an object “like this.” He showed me the motion and I knew exactly what it was! It was lifting my scriptures out of my scripture bag. (In case you are wondering why I lift my scriptures out of my scripture bag so often, it’s because I teach seminary and institute… ha!)

My doctor laughed right out loud…so hard he had to sit down on that little doctor stool. Then he said, “I have been a doctor for many years, and I see hundreds of people in your condition, and no one has EVER told me they got in that shape from reading their scriptures!” I wish you could have seen him laugh.

Because he knows me well, he knew I wasn’t going to stop reading my scriptures, so he advised me to get a smaller set.

I tried.

I really did. I bought a smaller set and everything.

But, my scriptures are all marked up just the way I want them. I love them. I didn’t want to start over again.

And then I found the nicest man in Alpine, Utah. A darling man by the name of Steve Rasmussen who understood how much I love my scriptures. Being a bookbinder by trade, he told me to come over and we would figure out what to do. We decided to bind my Old Testament separate…it’s so big it gets to be all by itself. My New Testament and my Bible Dictionary are in a different book. My triple is in a third book. I threw away the indexes because I use that feature on my phone, and those weigh a lot! AND, he bound in my patriarchal blessing, and my favorite conference talk, and the symbols of the Old Testament, and the Living Christ, and the Proclamation.

The best part was when he brought down a huge handful of leathers to let me pick what I wanted the covers to be made out of. The choice wasn’t hard. I picked my Grandma Belle’s favorite color of pink. Every time I open them, I am reminded of her.

That’s the story!

And maybe you have a favorite set of scriptures that you just can’t part with, but they need a little bit of care. Take them to my friend Steve. And he will sit with you, and find out everything you love about your scriptures, and before you know it everything will be good as new!

You can find him at alpinecustombookbinding.com.

And, yes, I am a flower collector. If I ever visit a spot that is mentioned in the scriptures, I bring a flower home and dry it…and then I tape it in, so I will remember that at one time in my life I actually visited that holy place.

My scriptures are full of memories. Lesson learned, and places visited, and revelations that have come.

They are a journal of my life and a record of my spiritual journey.

An extension of my heart.

The greatest possession I own.