Why High School Seniors Should Read The Bible by August

Why High School Seniors Should Read The Bible by August - February 2015 Scholarship Essay

As a high school senior, I think the book that has most influenced my life is The Bible. I think that every senior, whether they are religious or not, should read The Bible because of the life lessons The Bible teaches. The Bible teaches important life lessons on how to be honest, courageous, and forgiving. It used real life examples of common people to show God’s power and ability. The Bible is a book that many people can relate to because like its characters, we are common people in search of everyday miracles.

In The Bible God gave his people, the Israelites, a set of commandments to follow. God gave these commandments to the people not to punish or control them but to protect them from the harm that their sins would cause them. One of God’s commandments was ”Thou shalt not lie.” Being honest is important because it allows the people in your life to trust you. If you do something wrong but you own up to your mistakes and are honest about what you did people will think more highly of you than if you do something wrong and lie to try and cover up what you did.

Knowing that this is the last year that I will spend in my hometown with my family can sometimes be a scary thought. Knowing that in the fall I will leave everything I’ve known and move to another city on my own can be scary as well, but having the courage to leave everything you've known and going to further your education is part of growing up. In The Bible there are many characters who are faced with challenges where they are required to be courageous but the one that most commonly sticks out in my mind is the story of Esther. Esther was a common Babylonian girl who was specially chosen by the king of Persia to be his wife because of her beauty and intelligence. When Persia captured Babylon, Esther’s cousin Mordeccai refuses to bow down to one of the Kings highly ranked successors named Haman. Haman went to the king and told him that all the Babylonians should be killed for the man’s disloyalty. In this time people were not allowed to speak to king without permission, not even his wife, Esther. However, Esther went to the king to beg him not to kill her people, the Babylonians. Esther had to have courage to approach the king with her request because he easily could’ve ordered Ester to be killed for approaching him without permission, but because of Esther’s bravery the king decided not to kill her people.

In life there will be people who treat you poorly that will need to be forgive. The bible has numerous stories of people who forgive their wrong doers. The story that most commonly sticks out in my mind from The Bible about forgiveness is the story of Joseph. Joseph was the youngest of nine brothers and his father’s favorite son. Joseph’s brothers were very jealous of the extra attention their father gave joseph so they sold Joseph into slavery and told their father that Joseph was killed. Joseph became a slave for the king and eventually became the king himself, over the course of many years. There became a famine in the land and Joseph’s brothers came to visit their brother, the king, for food. When Joseph’s brothers first arrived they did not recognize Joseph. When his brother’s finally recognized him they begged for his forgiveness and Joseph forgave them.

The Bible is one of the world’s most popular books because of the lessons it teaches its readers; Lessons of honesty, courage, and forgiveness. In a world that is filled with so many terrible thing people look to books like The Bible for a source of hope; hope that people will read it and follow its teachings; hope that the next generation will have morals like The Bible calls us to have. If all high school seniors had the opportunity to read The Bible the world might be a better place; a place where people had strong morals and values and cared for one another.