Now, I tried to look up the story the best I could on the information I had but I didn't have any luck so I don't know if this is a true story or not or who shared it. I didn't come up with it, I'm just retelling it. I added a title and names to the characters.
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The Book
Once in a time and place like
this, there was a young man named Jeffery. Jeffery was a handsome young man who
was unhappy. He used to regularly attend church meetings but as he grew older
he went less and less and chose to read articles and news that cast bad light
on his religion.
Jeffery fell into a spiritual and finical ditch. He
needed money and the way he saw to get it was to spend time with his elderly
Aunt Lise.
Aunt Lise was wealthy and Jeffery planned to get a
share of her money when she died. So on a regular basis, Jeffery went to visit
his Aunt.
Besides being pretty well off, Aunt Lise was also
an active church member. She went to church every Sunday and read in the
scriptures every day. Over time, Aunt Lise's eyesight faded.
"Jeffery," She'd ask her nephew.
"Will you read to me from the scriptures?"
"No, thanks," Jeffery would respond. He
wanted nothing to do with church.
After a time, Aunt Lise passed away. Jeffery attended
the reading of her will, eagerly awaiting the money.
You can imagine Jeffery's disappointment when,
after all Aunt Lise's money had been given to charity, he was given her old set
of scriptures and a letter.
Jeffery went home and read the letter.
"Dear
Jeffery,
"If you
read in the scriptures everyday you will be rewarded.
"Thank
you for visiting with me, an old woman is thankful for the company.
"With
all my love,
"Aunt
Lise."
In complete disgust, Jeffery tossed the scriptures
and letter into a corner of his room and forgot about them.
Weeks, months, and years passed and Jeffery grew
older and the scriptures collected even more dust.
Then, one day, Jeffery, now an old man, passed
away.
Because of all the debts he owned, all of Jeffery's
stuff was auctioned off.
At the auction, the auctioneer picked up the old,
dusty, beat up scriptures and read the letter to the audience.
"If you read these every day," The
auctioneer promised. "You'll be rewarded."
A nice elderly woman bought the scriptures for a
fair price and took it home. She looked over the book, wondering if the thing
was still readable. She opened the scriptures and found, tucked carefully
between each paper, a crisp $100 bill.
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There are several lessons we can take from this story. One moral is we will be rewarded if we study everyday. This story focuses on scriptures and those are important to study but we should also be gaining knowledge. If you want to be a doctor, for instance, you do a lot of studying and a lot of schooling to gain a degree. If you don't study, then you don't that degree.
Studying and diligence brings blessings.
