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HAVE YOU EVER HEARD a teacher say, "I know it's hard to read Isaiah, but...," "If we can just get past Isaiah..." or "let's see if we can get something out of these Isaiah verses..."?  Have you ever been guilty of saying it yourself?

DO YOU BELIEVE the words of Isaiah are "too hard," not because you've read them yourself but because you've been told so by others?  We disadvantage each other by passing on this idea that Isaiah is too hard to understand.  (If we avoid this for just one generation, how free would our children be to discover and "delight" in Isaiah?)

PERSONAL CONNECTION: While expecting my second child, I searched for a meaningful children's book about becoming an older sibling.  I was surprised to find how many of them functioned on the same unspoken premise: children dislike new siblings.  Book after book then tried to "solve" the problem by showing how to overcome these negative feelings and learn to enjoy the daunting task of being a brother or sister.  In the end, I ended up writing my own book for my daughter with the assumption that she would love being a sister...

Making personal connections, recognizing familiar images, and delighting in words of comfort help us see Isaiah as the accessible book of scripture it can be

21.1.8

Book of Mormon The Church discourages rewriting the Book of Mormon into familiar or modern English. The First Presidency has said: “When a sacred text is translated into another language or rewritten into more familiar language, there are substantial risks that this process may introduce doctrinal errors or obscure evidence of its ancient origin. To guard against these risks, the First Presidency and Council of the Twelve give close personal supervision to the translation of scriptures from English into other languages and have not authorized efforts to express the doctrinal content of the Book of Mormon in familiar or modern English. (These concerns do not pertain to publications by the Church for children.)” (Ensign, Apr. 1993, 74).