On Feb. 19th, 2016, our family was in a car accident. It was my fault. I failed to see a car coming in an intersection where I should have been yielding to them. I made it most of the way across the intersection, but the car still T-boned us on our back passenger side. The driver hit us so hard our car flipped around 180 degrees, and our tire was so bent up that our van wouldn't even drive. It had to be towed away. No one was hurt, but nonetheless the whole experience was awful.
I quickly realized it was going to take a while for my brain to purge itself of the trauma and surprise of it all. As soon as we made it safely home the accident started playing over and over in my head. I couldn't think of much else despite efforts to keep myself busy and to distract myself. I found myself constantly having to take deep breaths, I couldn't sleep, and knew that some anxiety had really set in. If my husband Geoff were near me, or would hug me, I'd be ok. But unfortunately he left on a business trip the morning after the accident and I was left to deal with it on my own. I had resigned myself to just pushing through. I knew it wouldn't last forever, and if I could just make it through the first few days the effect would start to lessen until it went away.
But luckily for me, I had gotten myself into the habit of listening to the scriputres and LDS General Conference talks while I did mundane tasks around the house - laundry, dishes, getting ready for the day, etc. So that Saturday morning after Geoff left, I dumped a few loads of laundry on my bed and started to sort it as I listened to a Conference talk. It only took a few minutes before I realized that I was breathing normally again. My body felt calm and it was really refreshing when I realized my brain was focusing on the words of the talk and not the replay of the accident. Listening to Conference had resulted in my anxiety symptoms disappearing! It was incredible! You can bet that I listened all weekend long. Literally - every waking minute I was listening to either the Book of Mormon or to the conference talks. And after a few days of listening, I was fine again.
The Book of Mormon has two references to being "nourished by the word of god" (Jacob 6:7, Moroni 6:4). I truly believe this is what happened to me on that Saturday morning. I was literally nourished and healed by the word of god.
Most of the time we think of the spiritual nourishment and benefits we get from the scriptures. And there certainly are a million and one ways that the word of god can nourish us spiritually. But I feel this case was a little more unique. I was physically nourished by the word of god that day. There was a literal physical effect on my mortal body because I was listening to the word of god.
It made me start to think about how important it really, really is to constantly be immersed in the scriptures and the word of god. To always have the word of god on the forefront of your mind can change the outcome of your day, keep you focused on Christ, and give the foundation you need to get though the scary things we face in life. And in some cases, the nourishing word of god can even physically change and heal a person as it did for me. Truly, the word of god may be some of the most important nourishment we can get.
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