Last week was about gradually increasing understanding of how things go together.
That was about a general understanding, but the way things come together -- so what order the different pieces come in and when they come and how -- is very individual.
Even more individual is that personal understanding of what you specifically need and how to do it.
More than five years ago I started a goal to read through all of the General Conference talks. It took a restart and working out a system, but I finally finished that last month.
About a year into it, I started reading Ensign issues, which has now covered 1986 through 2001.
Those were not done sequentially as much as trying to coordinate with the area of Sunday school study for that year. (For example, this year was the Doctrine and Covenants, which meant 1989, 1994, 1998, and 2001, but there was stronger correlation in some years than others.) It did not mean reading the whole issue; I specifically looked for articles that would be good for scriptural and doctrinal understanding, but also kind of went by what sounded interesting.
I ended up having my conference talk reading Monday through Friday, then on Saturdays I would read old Ensign issues.
Much more recently I started singing a hymn daily. I look up the scripture references and who wrote the music and lyrics and I practice leading it for at least one verse, but sing or listen to all of the verses.
On Sundays I also try and read the material for the next week's Sunday School lesson. I want to stay connected with the curriculum, even though I have my own things that I feel a need to do.
That may sound like a lot, but it took a while to take shape and became manageable. When I was looking at it from various starting points, things didn't seem so possible. Then, I would figure out what worked, and it would take on a rhythm. They have all become rewarding -- with some nuisances too -- and I have grown.
One thing I had to figure out along the way was what to do with new conferences. I am now on my third read-through of the October 2025 conference. Yes, that feels like overkill.
It was navigating that space between systems. As new conferences happened, I would read the whole session in a week, so quickly (kind of taking the place of viewing, which I have not been doing lately). Then, when I came to it in the order of the reading, I would go through it again at the normal speed, which was about half a session per day.
Now that this particular project is over, maintaining (at least for now) on upcoming conferences will be one fast read through and then one talk per day until all of the talks have been read. The way the timing worked, October 2025 is unique in getting all three ways, plus some talks will get additional review for lessons.
I sang the last of the Christmas hymns yesterday, but I still have over a hundred hymns left. I don't know for sure what will happen next. For now, singing for Mom frequently and studying more about singing and music... that could lead somewhere interesting too. If so, it will happen in due time.
I had wanted to go through the conference talks for a while before I tried. I have also wanted to go through the institute manuals for the standard works. I thought that would happen next, and thought it was perfect that I would be starting that on the Old Testament. That is very sequentially sound.
I can't do it. Not yet.
I am sure some of that is that the Old Testament is so long; it would be a hard entry point, especially with my tradition of false starts. It took a while to work that out.
Because I finished the conference talks in November, I had to do something for December. I had thought about starting the Old Testament early because there is so much of it, but I really wanted to focus on Christ. (Yes, much of the Old Testament is about Him too. I know.)
At first I thought I was going to read the entire New Testament before the end of the year. Reading the Gospels definitely felt right, and I wanted to read Revelation, but I wasn't sure about the epistles (or Acts). There was some thought that it was a long time before I would get to the other books as well.
That project changed to reading the four Gospels, then going to Helaman and reading from Samuel the Lamanite through to the end of Third Nephi (I am currently in Third Nephi), then reading Revelation. Okay, I have the mortal ministry from the Bible, then prophesies and destruction and the Resurrected Christ coming and teaching, followed by peace and falling away from the Book of Mormon, and then I have more apostasy and destruction but with a triumphant return back in the Bible. That sounded right for Christmas and the end of the year.
Somewhere in there, I realized what I need to do for next year is read all of the standard works. I have done that in a year before, when I was preparing for my mission. That was sequentially, but this time I am going to read them together. Each week will contain readings from the Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants, with the Pearl of Great Price interspersed as appropriate.
That is a big goal, but then it just felt right. This is what is supposed to come next for me.
I believe the institute manuals will still happen, quite likely next year. It's just not time for them yet.
Also, I got to where I hated reading a single Ensign on a Sunday, even ignoring some of the articles. I thought maybe I was done with the magazines, but I think I will try and read one issue per week in 2026, following the same formula of choosing what to read, but spreading that reading out across the week. I will start in 1985 and work backwards. (I have considered going forward from 2002 and I am not ready for that yet.)
You probably don't really need to know all of that. I still really like details and knowing thought processes though, so I put them out there. It may still be an unnecessarily long journey to the point, but here we are:
We can be guided in many ways. How much of it is inspiration versus instinct versus self-knowledge gained over experience can be debated, but there are things that work better and worse. We can figure that out and we can have help in doing so.
In terms of the knowledge and understanding that I gain, as well as the inspiration and support, my scripture study is important. Getting guidance on that is appropriate and important, but that process has steps.
It was intimidating enough to think about reading all of the conference talks; if at that time I had also been thinking about church magazines and hymns, I don't know that I could have done it.
That way it has worked out has been orderly and achievable and valuable.
I believe that guidance can be available to anyone.
That doesn't mean it will come quickly or easily, but you can learn things from the struggles too.
Related posts:
https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2024/03/changing-things-up-scripture-study.html
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2025/05/a-little-bit-more-on-music.html
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