Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover

I have been thinking a lot about phrases that our parents say to us as we are growing up. Phrases such as,”there are starving kids in [enter country here] that would love to have this food! now eat it!”, “don’t stick your lip out, a bird might come and poop on it!” (My grandma said that one to me. It scarred me for life.), and, “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” So, these phrases keep going through my mind and each time, I realize, more and more, just how profound our mothers and fathers really are. See, I never understood why my mom was telling me that there were starving kids in other countries. How did that apply to my needing to eat my food? I would always think to myself, “man, if there are starving kids, why would I eat this food? I thought you’re supposed to be teaching me to not be selfish. We need to send it to them!” I think what my mom was trying to teach me was that I needed to be grateful for what I had by comparing my situation (a cranky, spoiled kid who didn’t like Lima beans) to kids that had less, and sometimes had nothing at all. Profound. However, I want to talk about another phrase today, and no, not the bird pooping on your lip one (I still don’t see how a bird is going to be able to do that. That is one skilled bird). No, today I wanted to talk about the phrase, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. I love reading. I grew up in a house where watching the tv was the last thing my parents wanted me doing. We didn’t even have tv for the first few years of my life. Instead, we read books. All kind of books; fantasies like “Harry Potter”, “The Inheritance Cycle”, and “Lord of the Rings. Historical fiction, non-fiction, sci-fi, and all the other good reads. I even read a cookbook once, and not to try to cook something out of it. I simply needed something to read and the food on the cover looked good. I always chose the book that had the coolest cover. Some had pictures of dragons, some with army men, and, my favorite, pictures of Jedi. (How can you turn down a book with a Jedi on the front?) Whatever the book may be, if it had a cool cover I would read it. Sometimes this way of picking books didn’t end up so well. I started one book at least six times just because I liked the cover, however, I couldn’t get into the book. It was boring, didn’t have a very good plot line, and the characters seemed stiff and cold. On the other hand, I was once searching for a good book to read when my brother suggested a book with probably the most boring cover I could think of. It was a smaller book with a burgundy cover with a bird on the front (something like that). I finally decided to give it a try and from page one I was captured by the greatness of the book. It had a good plot, great writing style, and the characters were real to me. I felt like I was in the story itself. From these experiences I have learned that the phrase, “don’t judge a book by its cover” can be taken literally. On that note, I have read a book that I believe to be the number one most judged book, possibly in the world, simply because of the cover and it’s title. Every day, I go out and try to tell people about this book. Every day, it am told that it is not worth their time, even though most of them have never even read a page. It’s terribly frustrating. See, this isn’t just some book that I enjoyed reading. This is the best book. A book that literally changed my life forever. It continues to change my life today. It is called “The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ“. I’ll be the first to admit that the Book of Mormon doesn’t have the most exciting cover. It’s just a simple blue book with gold lettering. No pictures or crazy designs on the front (some editions might have a different cover), no extra creative title. Nothing about the cover itself would make you want to read it. However, I can promise you that our parents are wise when they say, “don’t judge a book by its cover”. It is the word of God, just as the Bible is the word of God, and it will change the life of anyone who reads it, as it has changed mine. That is the promise of the book and it is my promise to you. Don’t judge this book by its cover or by the words of men. Give it a try, read it, ask God if it is His words and find out for yourself. I promise you that you will never regret it! (If you would like to learn more about this AMAZING, FREE book, check out Mormon.org, ask any member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or “Ask the missionaries! They can help you!”)