adventures in bible-reading

Hey, mom (and others who read my blog)!

I have a HUGE FAVOR to ask ... but I think that in order to ask it, I'm going to have to give a little background.

My first year of EFY was an AMAZING, LIFE CHANGING experience. I was able to have a mighty change of heart ... the change from a pesky little middle-schooler to a fledgling Molly Mormon. Those were the beginning of the continual good times that seem to make up my life.

I left that week with a lot of new dreams. I wanted to get married in the temple to my COW (crush of the week). I wanted to read the Book of Mormon. I wanted to go to a church school. Another dream that cropped up was the dream of taking a class from my dynamic session director, Brother Hilton, at said church school. During that one week of EFY, Brother Hilton taught me so much about my self worth and he helped me to DELIGHT in the Gospel. I hoped that, if I ever got lucky enough to be attending BYU, I would be able to take a class from him.

Fast forward eight years ... I'm now lucky enough to be attending BYU ... and also lucky enough to have checked off another of my dreams from that first EFY (the only one I haven't gotten was marrying my COW ... but I guess it goes to show: you can't win them all). I am in a class by Brother Hilton!

And it's not just any class ... It's a class about ...

the SECOND HALF OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

I can already hear the shouts of awe and envy.

To be honest, I never would have expected that I would take this class. It's not required to graduate, and it's based on a pretty intimidating book of scripture. Despite its archaic nature, I have been amazed to learn HOW MUCH OF IT APPLIES TO REAL LIFE! It applies to you and me.

So, for the rest of the semester, I am going to be documenting my adventure in applying the Bible and its teachings to my life. I'll be posting ACTION ITEMS based on principles that I have been learning from personal study and from class discussion. I will put these ACTION ITEMS into practice as perfectly as I can for ONE WEEK, and then report on it in the next week's blog post.

Here's where I'll need your help.

I need you to keep me accountable to my ACTION ITEMS. You don't need to DO the action items with me ... or even read the verses of scripture where they come from. I just need you to slap me around a little bit (in a nice, Christ-like way via internet) if I forget to do them. A gentle, virtual pat on the back when I do accomplish my goals would also be nice.

Or you could just read and enjoy the experience with me. I would love to have you along for the ride!

Before I go, I just wanted to share a little thought ... and my first ACTION ITEM.

I am studying Isaiah right now ... and it's a little bit of a challenge. The concepts that he taught and wrote about are incredible ... and are almost too big to comprehend fully. I have been pleasantly surprised, however, with the little gold nuggets of information that I can understand from what I've read.

I love the verses Isaiah 1:16-17. These verses are an admonition of the Lord to "cease to do evil" and to "learn to do well." My life is a constant struggle to put into action these two principles. I am so far away from Christ and His perfection, but I am trying to get rid of the things that are impeding my progress ... and simultaneously trying to form habits that will speed up that process even more. The beautiful thing is that THROUGH CHRIST, I can do it! I can accomplish my eternal goals! Doesn't that thought inspire hope?

This week, I am going to take some time to think of ONE NEGATIVE HABIT that I can start eliminating from my life and ONE POSITIVE HABIT that I can start implementing. I don't expect mastery in either of these two habits, but I think (and so does Jeffrey R. Holland according to the quote that follows) Heavenly Father is always willing to give us credit for trying.