Day 6: Scripture Challenge

July 6, 2012

Lately I've been struggling with faith. It's not that I have lost my faith, but that I am beginning to ask more questions. I've been thinking about this a lot lately and have decided that it's not a bad thing. I am at a plateau and in order to have the spiritual growth spurt that I feel is coming, I need to let myself ask these questions and learn to let the spirit guide me in finding the answers. I also realize that the spirit may guide me to simply have faith that the answers will not disappoint me and allow that to be my answer for now.

On day six I read a talk by James O. Mason, the President of the Bountiful temple, entitled "Faith in Jesus Christ." It is one of the talks listed under "Gospel Topics: Faith" on lds.org.

According to this article, faith is inhibited by fear and doubt and it is often interwoven with hope and charity. Matt and I were talking the other night about scary movies. At one point in our lives, we both individually decided that we no longer enjoyed them. Matt pointed out that he believes that it's not only the gore or the demons, but the entire concept of fear itself that the spirit dislikes. I thought this was an interesting point in the context of this talk because fear is described as the absence of faith.

Specifically, faith should be centered on the Savior. According to President Mason, this faith requires an acknowledgment of his divine attributes, including His infinite love for innocent and sinner and His infinite capacity to forgive and heal. For me, this kind of faith is the ultimate source of hope and the greatest thing I can hope for is this kind of faith.

Day 5: Scripture Challenge

July 5, 2012

When I was in the Primary Presidency in my last ward, the church came out with new leadership manuals. I'd never even seen the old ones, and there was a ton of hype in the Worldwide Leadership Training for these new manuals. I was extremely pumped to read my brand spanking new red manual from cover to cover.

About two weeks later I still hadn't even read the entirety of the small section that related directly to Primary. This is what I thought of when I read 1 Nephi 5 on day five. The boys finally returned from Jerusalem to the wilderness with the brass plates in tow. What do you suppose Lehi did when they got home? First, as always, he praised God that they were safe and well. Next, he "search[ed] them from the beginning." You go, Lehi!

It seems like a "duh" response to getting the brass plates after all the sacrifice that went into obtaining them, but is it really what we would do? Maybe Lehi is becoming one of my heroes. (Oh boy!)

Day 4: Scripture Challenge

July 4, 2012

Happy Independence Day!!!

On day four, the following phrase from 1 Nephi 4:2 caught my attention: "Let us be strong like unto Moses." I have read right past this line many times. This time, though, I just happened to be imagining myself in Nephi's place, when I came to this phrase and it occurred to me that I would never think/say that. When in my life have I thought, 'I need to be strong like [insert any prophet's name here]'? Never. I have admired certain prophets and people from the scriptures at different times in my life, but I haven't really used them as role models.

To be fair, I'm not generally the type to idolize anyone. Even in my adorable tweens I never had a celebrity crush and I seriously struggle with the question, "If you could meet any famous person who would it be?" Basically no one, thank you. I even had a dream once where I was entertaining a bunch of famous people for my birthday and it was torture. (Britney Spears ruined my mom's table).

So why does Nephi think to "be strong like unto Moses?" I suppose it's because he truly admired and loved him. I think the closest I've come to relating to this phrase is when I think of my deceased grandmother. I very much hope to become like her.

Moroni (not Captain Moroni, but the one at the end of the Book of Mormon) is probably the closest I have to a scripture hero. I know my dad has a church history hero, though I can't remember who it is. It's kind of a strange ambition, I guess, but I've decided I want to feel strongly enough about a gospel hero to someday say to myself, "Let me be strong, like ---."

Who are your heroes?

Day 3: Scripture Challenge

July 3, 2012

On day three I read lesson 13 from the George Albert Smith lesson manual in preparation for the Relief Society lesson. Despite my best intentions to learn, nothing about it really struck me. Then I read 1 Nephi 3:1-13 and again did not feel like any particular point spoke to me.

It bothers me when I have a scripture study like that because I expect to be able to have a spiritual experience every time I study. However, as I think about that expectation critically, I believe it's an unrealistic expectation.

If we had an overwhelming direct message from God every time we read the scriptures, there would be no sacrifice involved in our studying. I believe that to study the scriptures is a sacrifice and an act of faith. Even though I did not feel particularly enlightened on this day, I was consistent in the decision to follow God's commandment to search the scriptures. I have faith that it was not thirty minutes wasted. Maybe the mere act of sacrificing that time was the purpose of day three's study.

Day 2: Scripture Challenge

July 2, 2012

On day two, I had an interesting parenting insight from 1 Nephi 2:2. Lehi had been preaching the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem, as commanded by God. Obviously the Jerusalem-ites didn't want to hear that they were wicked so they responded by threatening Lehi's life. In response to this dilemma, God commanded Lehi to get the heck out of Jerusalem.

I was again admiring Lehi for the way he responded to this commandment. If I were Lehi I think a part of me would have felt cheated. Thank you very much, God, I would have thought. I did exactly what you asked and now instead of protecting me, you're telling me I better run for it.

As I thought about this, an image came to mind of being spotted in weightlifting or gymnastics. The goal of spotting is to help the person the absolute least amount necessary for them to complete their rep or their backflip, or whatever. A good spotter doesn't do any more than what is absolutely necessary. This way (in weightlifting) the person being spotted gets to maximize the work that their muscles are doing.

 In gymnastics, the gymnast who is being spotted well can feel a hint of what she needs to adjust in order to complete a skill and is just helped enough to gain confidence.

I decided this is what God often chooses to do for his children. I also decided it is an excellent model to follow for raising Lillian. Often, when she is asking me for help, I try to encourage her to try to do it on her own and then I help her just as much as necessary. For example, if she is begging me to help her up onto the couch, instead of picking her up and putting her on the couch, I allow her to try to climb up herself. If I can see that she is struggling, I put my hand under one of her feet to give her a foothold, but I don't push her, I allow her to do it by herself. With physical things, this is natural to me because I've done so much spotting in my life. I think the difficulty for me will come when I need to do emotional and/or spiritual spotting. Heavenly Father knows his stuff.

Day 1: Scripture Challenge

July 1, 2012

I've noticed a pattern in life. When one decides to do something that will have a significant spiritual impact, the devil does his best to derail those plans.

On day one, Matt and I were already feeling a tug away from our goal. It began without our even noticing; happily distracted doing less important things, we didn't remember our goal until late in the evening. By then, reading our scriptures for thirty minutes seemed like an unappealing use of our last moments of weekend. There was some tension in the apartment as we grudgingly began our goal.

Matt and I both received an answer to these feelings through our study.

As I read the beginning of the Book of Mormon, I noted that Lehi is a consistently positive and faithful man. Even when he learned of the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem (his home) he responded by praising God for his mercy. How easy it would have been to curse God for the great loss that was looming in the future. Instead his perspective was open to the eternal plan that God had for His people and he saw the mercy that guided all of His actions.

Matt's answer came during our abbreviated couple study. We read a short section of President Uchtdorf's talk, titled "The Why of Priesthood Service" from the April 2012 General Conference. This paragraph seemed to speak directly to some of the feelings Matt had expressed earlier that night:

"...the fact that something is good is not always reason enough to require our time and resources. Our activities, initiatives, and plans should be inspired by and grounded upon the why of our priesthood service and not by any flashy trend or interest of the moment. Otherwise, they can distract our efforts, dilute our energy, and get us caught up in our own hobbies, spiritual or temporal, that are not at the center of discipleship."

As always, we felt good after reading. It's interesting how common it is for human kind to resist doing things that they know will make them happiest.

Month Two: The Scripture Challenge

July 1st (yesterday) was the first day of my second perfect month, and the goal for this month is: a perfect month of scripture study.

I will study 30 minutes of scriptures every day of July.

The only other parameter for this goal is that I will keep study notes in a notebook as I go. I've found that doing this seriously improves my scripture study. For this goal, I've invited Matt to join me. I also invite any readers to do this one with me. I am excited to hear how this goal affects us all.

Alma 32:27 is my inspiration for this month:

But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

And so begins my second perfect month experiment.