It has been said that wise men learn from experience, but super-wise men learn from others’ experience. The Book of Mormon contains the experience of others, and we can use it and other scriptures to “enlarge our memory” (see Alma 37:8) and become wiser than we would be without them.
John Bytheway, "Moroni's Guide to Surviving Turbulent Times", Deseret Book 2017
For years, I would just read the Book of Mormon as a bunch of stories. Stories that do show divine help in certain situations, albeit. But it was a book about the struggles and fighting of others, long ago. So, naturally, I would take it for granted.
But I'm starting to view the Book of Mormon as more of an ever-evolving liahona sent to guide me personally, and one that works (or doesn't work) based on the heed, focus, recognition, and diligence I give it. It's ever-evolving because it sends me different messages based on my current circumstances or questions. Or, more precisely, Heavenly Father sends me those messages, not the book itself.
Again, I only "hear" those messages when I'm in the right mindset. Most of the time, those messages come as a feeling or inspiration. Usually, that inspiration is telling me to act on something, to go do something.
Anyway, I'm learning to apply the struggles, the lessons, the mistakes, the lives of those early peoples and prophets into my own life. To learn from them....in some way. The Lord will tell me how. I just need to listen.
