Challenge #10—Favorite Scripture

This is the last challenge of the Book of Mormon/Scripture series, which I have loved doing!  It’s been fun to focus on one topic—at least I think it has been!

What is your favorite Book of Mormon scripture and why?

This one is pretty self-explanatory, and you can do it in many different ways.  You can just write it down in your journal, blog about it, type it up on your computer to print off.  You can write a poem or a song about it, or scrapbook about it.  The possibilities are many! (And you don’t have to do a Book of Mormon one, it can be one from the Bible if that’s your favorite—the point is to just record what your favorite scripture is.)

My favorite scripture is Alma 37:37.  It says:

“Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning, let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.”

I don’t remember when it became my favorite, but I’ve loved it for quite awhile.  It always reminds me that no matter what I do, I need to pray about it.  (Well, not the everyday things like which shirt to wear—but you get my drift.)  We need to keep a prayer in our hearts, pray when we go bed, pray when we wake up, and be thankful to God always.  The promise if we do this, is that we will be lifted up.  What a glorious promise!  I know that prayer isn’t the only thing we need to do, but if we pray, then we will be led in making all the other righteous choices that we need to.

Now, I challenge you to record your favorite scripture!

Bonus Challenge #2—Book of Mormon Heroes

I realized today that I have two more scripture/Book of Mormon challenges and only one more week left of October to do them, so I’m throwing out a bonus challenge today!

Who are your favorite people/heroes in the Book of Mormon?  Why?

(Picture found here)

Captain Moroni is one of my very favorites.  Here was a man who prepared the minds of the people to be faithful to God, he strengthened the armies by building forts, he built up the weakest places, he fortified the land possessed by the Nephites to guard against the enemy, he supported the liberties, peace and freedoms so they could worship God.  Not only was he a great leader, but he was a great man.  He was strong, mighty, had a perfect understanding, he didn’t delight in bloodshed, he loved freedom, he was grateful, he was a hard worker for his family and country’s sake, he kept the commandments, and he resisted iniquity.  (Alma 48:7-16)

“If all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.”  (Alma 48:17)

Also, one of my unsung heroes is Pahoran.   We don’t talk about him a lot, but what I’ve always loved is his response to Captain Moroni’s letter to him.  (Moroni had written a rather harsh letter, letting him know that he wasn’t doing his job as the government leader.  It wasn’t Pahoran’s fault, as he’d had rebellions going on to take care of, and didn’t have any fresh men to send to Moroni.)  His response is amazing:  “And now, in your epistle you have censured me, but it mattereth not; I am not angry, but do rejoice in the greatness of your heart.  I…do not seek for power, save only…that I may preserve the rights and liberty of my people.”  (Alma 61:9)  What a humble guy.  How easily he could’ve gotten offended and turned away from the light.  

I love how I can read about people in the scriptures, who probably thought of themselves as normal, and learn from their stories to strengthen my own life and testimony.  What good examples and heroes there are in the scriptures!
Now, I challenge you to record who your favorite scripture heroes are!  

More awesome hero posters here!

Feast Upon The Words of Christ…

I came across this video on “Mormon Messages”, and it goes so well with this week’s and last week’s challenges, as well as “The Book of Mormon Forum” going on over here for the month of October.  

I know I have taken the scriptures for granted.  This video reminds me that so many people have sacrificed so much to give them to us!  


It's amazing how God has been planning for the restoration of the Gospel for this long.  Just think about it, if these men hadn't desired to get the Bible into commoner's hands, Joseph Smith wouldn't have had it, or read James 1:5, which led him to believe that God would answer his prayer!  

I am so grateful for all the righteous men and women who throughout the years have sacrificed their time and their lives to give us all a chance to have the truth in our hands.



Now I encourage you to go check out some more posts from others all about the Book of Mormon!

Challenge #8—Search, Ponder and Pray

This week’s challenge is kind of a continuation of last week’s, but only a little more broad.  

The Challenge:  How do you study your scriptures?  

You can write down how you do it, do a video walk-through tour of your marking system, take pictures, make a scrapbook layout of it, or even set goals to do a better job of daily scripture study!

It seems like this last General Conference had a lot of messages about the scriptures.  I loved this talk by Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles found here.

One of my favorite quotes from this talk was:

“Pondering a scripture…gives great direction to life. The scriptures can form a foundation of support. They can provide an incredibly large resource of willing friends who can help us. A memorized scripture becomes an enduring friend that is not weakened with the passage of time.
Pondering a passage of scripture can be a key to unlock revelation and the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Scriptures can calm an agitated soul, giving peace, hope, and a restoration of confidence in one’s ability to overcome the challenges of life. They have potent power to heal emotional challenges when there is faith in the Savior. They can accelerate physical healing.”
 
I love to study my scriptures!  I had the opportunity to serve as a full time missionary, and one thing that I learned was that scripture study is important, and the more you do it, the more you hunger and thirst to study more!  As missionaries, we had personal study for one hour each day!  We studied the Book of Mormon for 1/2 an hour, and then studied any other scriptures (Bible, Pearl of Great Price or Doctrine and Covenants) or specific books (Jesus the Christ, The Articles of Faith, etc.) for 1/2 an hour.  It came to me, almost as shock, that every morning I looked forward to studying.  I hungered and thirsted for the knowledge I could find in the holy words.  

Right now in my life, as a mom, I don’t really have time to study for one whole uninterrupted hour, and some days I’m lucky if I get in 3 verses.  But I do make a point to read my scriptures everyday.  It does take sacrifice—or so it seems some days.  But the truth of it is that on the days when I study my scriptures and put God first in my life, those days just seem to fall into place.  Whenever I’m having a bad day, I think back to my morning and most of the time I realize that I didn’t study my scriptures that morning.  It truly is the “rock” to my day!

There are a few things that I do to help me study.  First of all, I start with a prayer.  This opens the doors to receive personal revelation!  Next, I have a very detailed marking system in my scriptures.  (I took a whole Institute class on this!)  This system has really helped me visualize the scriptures and it helps me find certain topics with ease.  Also, it really helps me study and feast on the scriptures rather than just read them.  When people look at my scriptures they wonder why it’s so colorful.  This is what they look like:

Also, I love to keep a scripture journal.  A special place where I can record the things I learn.  I don’t write in it every session, just when something really powerful hits me.  Another thing that helps me, is to study with the LDS Institute manuals that go with the what I'm studying.  There are so many insights in them that help me understand so much more!

There is an awesome article in this months’ Ensign about studying your scriptures, and here is a link to many more talks and lessons from the Church website.  If you would like to share how you study your scriptures, leave a comment or a link to your post!

I am so grateful for the scriptures!  I know they are the word of God, and that by reading, studying, and pondering upon the teachings found therein, we can come closer to Christ!

Now, I challenge you to record about how you study your scriptures!

If you want to read on, I'll explain how I mark my scriptures!

I use colors in the regular verses by subjects. Some colors I chose because I associate that color with that topic, others were just random. 

Red = Repentance and Atonement

Orange = Wickedness, wicked acts, pride 

Yellow = Christ speaking, Sabbath Day, and in a small rectangle, I use it to mark parables in the Bible (bottom right picture)

Light Green = Righteousness, righteous acts

Dark Green = Mercy, grace

Light Blue = Faith, baptism

Dark Blue = Missionary work, obedience

Purple = Godhead (anything that states the natures of any member of the Godhead)

Hot Pink = Testimonies of the writers

Dark Pink = Lover, service, charity

Brown = Prayer, fasting, church attendance

In the footnotes I highlight in the color, then circle or color the letter up in the verse.  This way, as I'm reading, I know there is an important footnote to read.  (These are mostly in the Bible) I use the colors as such:

Greek  New Testament translation (GR) = Green 

Joseph Smith Translation (JST) = Red

Hebrew Old Testament translation (Heb) = Blue

i.e. = Pink

OR = Orange

Random extra helpful notes (see...) = Light green

I make lists with small red triangles.  For example, in D&C 11:17-18, I have a small triangle in front of [keep my commandments], [hold your peace], [appeal unto my Spirit], [cleave unto me].  This comes in handy whenever you want to focus on parts that make up a whole.  

I write any notes or related scriptures in the margins in black.  (Sometimes I draw small pictures as well!) I often write at the top about something major that is going on, to find stories easily.  ("Nephi builds a ship", "King Benjamin teaches his people", "Christ visits the people on the American continent", etc.) 

I also write basic questions that the scripture answer.  I write these questions in pink.  For example, in 3 Nephi 9 (pg. 425), I wrote: "Why did Christ come to Earth? vs. 17-22".  This has helped me easily find answers and give answers to others should they have those questions.

My favorite marking tools are the Gelly Roll pens by Sakura for colors.  Down side is, it's permanent and if you mess up, it's always there. Up side is they are skinny, acid-free and come in many colors. Colored pencils also work, and they can be erased if you buy the right kind.  Down side is you have to sharpen a lot to keep the point little enough.  I do use both, especially when I have more than one topic per color, then I'll use pencil for one, pen for the other.  For the black writing pen, I use Sakura Pigma Micron or the Zig Millennium in a .01.  Both are very fine and acid-free.  

If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask! I hope that helps!

Challenge #7—Another Testament of Christ

(Just a quick note, I discovered the blog “We talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ” a few weeks ago and it seems that Jocelyn has a theme every month where she hosts a lot of ideas from others.  I am going to be basing at least two challenges a month on her theme so that you can read all the wonderful ideas and and stories that she shares to help you record your challenge answer.  Click over on the Book of Mormon on the right side bar for this month!)

 

What makes the LDS Church different from every other Church out there?  Well, there are a few things, but the one answer I’m thinking of is “The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ”. 

 

 

The Challenge:  Write or record your testimony of the Book of Mormon

 

You can record your testimony in many different ways!  Write it, type it up, blog it, scrapbook it, video record yourself…really you can do so many things!

I loved this Conference talk just a few days ago from Tad R. Callister of the 70, all about the Book of Mormon.  (I encourage you to listen to or watch this talk—again if you heard it already).

 

 

I loved how he points out that The Book of Mormon either comes from the devil or from God, and all you need to do is read it, you will know!

 

I also loved where he said that you can put an infinite amount of lines through one dot and it is open to many different interpretations.  But if you have to put a line through two dots, it can be interpreted one way.  And then how he compared that to many interpretations of the Bible or having two witnesses—like the Bible and The Book of Mormon, to make the message clear!  No interpreting necessary! 

 

I have read the Book of Mormon many times in my life.  Each time I read it, I feel the Spirit witness to me of the truthfulness of the teachings found there.  I can turn the sacred pages and find answers to my questions.  When I am in need of peace, I can read the writings and find it.  I know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ.  I know that it was written for our day, and saved for our day.  I know that we can become more like our Savior if we read and follow the teachings that are in it.  I am very grateful for this other testament of Christ that has given me a sure knowledge of the teachings of the Gospel.

If you have never read the Book of Mormon, I encourage you to read it, ponder the teachings of it, and pray about the messages you read.  (If you would like one, email me your address and I will send you one!)

Go to any of these posts to read inspiring stories about the Book of Mormon!
Now I challenge you to go record your testimony of The Book of Mormon!