Changing things up: scripture study

I was thinking it's time for another "tip" post.

That is mainly because I was thinking about some of the different things I have done for scripture study over the years, as well as how they have come about.

My scripture study started when I was about 8 or 10. I happened to look up from drawing on the program during sacrament meeting, and the speaker said you should read the scriptures every day.

That made an impression.

There were gaps, but I did eventually make it all the way through the four standard works. I think I was about 13 when I got there. I would miss nights and then plan on reading more the next day, but eventually a habit was formed. I did not get a lot out of it that first time through, but I did get some things.

At one point I asked a bishopric member for books he recommended, leading me to read A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, Jesus the Christ, and The Miracle of Forgiveness. I did go back to reading the standard works. 

I got more out of it the second time, but there was still a lot that didn't sink in. Sometimes my attention wandered or I was bored, and it was questionable whether any of the words sunk in. However, I kept going, and different things made impressions here and there.

At times I have tried different things. When I was preparing to go on a mission, I read the Book of Mormon in every language I had studied at that point: French, Spanish, and Italian. I thought I might end up using one of those languages on my mission.

Laotian anyone?

I have taken Institute classes. I have read with my family.

Many of the scriptures that are important to me were first noticed because someone else was sharing it, and what it meant to them. Sometimes someone else's context provides extra resonance.

Currently, I am reading through conference talks. 

It was something I had wanted to do, but it seemed like too big an undertaking. Then it wasn't, though there was still a false start. 

I don't think it was so much that I procrastinated as that I first had the idea before it fit into my life.

It started out kind of awkwardly, and then got into a rhythm. Then I started remembering these really great Ensign articles about different parts of the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon. So now I am also reading Ensign articles that go along with the topic at hand. This month, that means looking through the March Ensigns for 1992, 1996, and 2000.

(I am keeping up with the regular reading in Come Follow Me as well.) 

I have these Institute manuals that I have tried to bring in before, but then it didn't work out. I think after I finish the conference talks, then it will be time for them. Maybe.

I'm not necessarily recommending any of these for any one person, but there are three things that I will say for anyone.

1. The knowledge we gain from reading the scriptures is important. Prayer is how we open communication with God but the scriptures facilitate that communication.
2. I believe that we can get guidance on what will help us and what we need specifically.
3. I know that gaining greater understanding takes time and persistence. That time that you put in is a worthwhile investment.
   

Related posts:

https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2009/01/december-2007-scriptural-literacy.html

Week off

I was traveling this weekend. I thought I could still post, but for a good post it's better to take this week off.

Wishing you well.

Endurance

I am very sad and angry today.

I am going to write about that Tuesday, on the main blog. It does still influence my thoughts today.

What I have been writing previously relates to our having a loving Father in Heaven, and that the more we know about the revealed plan of salvation, then the love and the logic unfolds. 

That includes the existence of suffering and people being terrible, but what I must not neglect to mention is that it hurts. 

The pain is real.

Going through it is hard.

That is the pain of living, and the pain of living as others die.

Does having perspective on that make it easier?

Ultimately, in some ways it does, but it still hurts a lot.

That pain can make you more compassionate, or it can make you resentful and cruel.

That may not feel like a choice, but it is and it's a choice that is vitally important.

Justice and mercy both get satisfied, and healing happens. Eventually.

Hold on to love.

 

 

Agency

So often when I find people who don't believe in God and are angry at the very idea of God, it is because of the suffering that is allowed. In other words ...

Why do bad things happen to good people?

It is easy to look around and wonder when there is so much that is clearly wrong, and so based in cruelty.

Obviously, that happens through the choices people make.

Previously, when I have thought about that, I have thought about how I ultimately do value my ability to choose, and would not give that up easily. In addition, I know that I have learned and grown from making these choices. While it would have been hard to have said at the start of any trial, Yes, I want to go through this, I usually can see the value in retrospect.

Recently I have been thinking about another aspect of that, with Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac.

It seems like such a cruel request, and something that under other circumstances would be seen as sinful. 

I believe that both Abraham and Isaac learned and grew from that, and they were willing to submit to it. 

I suspect that part of what they learned was a greater understanding of the Atonement, and the roles of the Father and the Son in that Atonement, along with its saving power as there was a substitute provided for Isaac.

It seems likely that for where they were already at in their spiritual journey, that's what was needed for their next step toward completeness.

Yet still, it seems cruel and makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

So, being here with all of us running around making choices, rather than having every single trial custom-made for us by God, turns out to be pretty effective. With understanding of the plan we also don't have to feel like God is picking on us.

We can get closer to God, asking for support and understanding. We can feel our own healing through the Atonement, and we can have assurance that all will be healed in time, for us and for others.

All of those are remarkable things. I am grateful for that knowledge and learning. I am wiser and my heart is more tender.

I'm not saying it is easier, and I am not saying I am never angry. This is the other thing that's important with that.

First of all, we should do anything we can to help and not harm. This can involve giving time and money, speaking comforting words and writing petitions and it may even include demonstrating or stepping into a conflict at personal risk. Knowing the best thing isn't always easy, but we care, we believe in doing what's right, and we believe in helping.

Ways we might get this wrong include assuming that everyone suffering brought it upon themselves. That is the common Republican failing. 

The common Democrat failing is deferring to power too much, and going too slowly. 

The common Progressive failing is getting mad at the Democrats -- apparently believing that all of the delay is choice, as opposed to some things actually not being within their power -- and then being spiteful and dishonest. It includes making new problems for other people instead of helping the original people.

I mean, there are a lot of ways of being wrong. As we get closer to an election, I am sure I will spend more time on those.

Still, the overall point is that we all have agency, and that is what we need, even though there are things that are hard about it.

Our successful navigation of that will require prayer and humility. It will leave us kinder and more loving, with more grace for others and ourselves.

If your primary feelings are contempt for others -- for almost everyone, in fact -- you are probably not where you need to be, but I hope that you get there. 

I hope that we get there together. 

Just talking

As I am holding forth on the logical, it seems like every now and then there should also be some tips. 

If so much of this is predicated on a father who loves us; what if you don't know or feel that?

There are parents who can make that much harder. Sometimes even I am surprised that I don't picture Heavenly Father as similar to my earthly one, but I feel very fortunate.

When we teach people to pray, we focus on things like using respectful language, starting by addressing Heavenly Father and closing in the name of Jesus Christ, and that we both thank for what we have already received as well as asking for what we want.

There is nothing wrong with that, and remembering those things is important. 

I especially get the value of both remembering to thank and ask. When there is a pressing concern, it is easy to just focus on that and forget all of the good things that have happened or are available. Sometimes you just want to launch into the concern because it is overpowering all of your other thoughts.

Remembering that structure can be one solution; No! I've got to thank first!

Doing so is probably good for keeping perspective and not catastrophizing.

I am going to add two other possibilities.

One is that if you have prayers that are heavy on the asking, you could also at times have prayers that only thank, or one where you thank for many things and then only ask for one thing. Praying more often and thinking about the kinds of prayers you are praying can be great.

The other thing is that in the realm of asking and telling, there is not only thanking and asking. Sometimes you can just pour out your heart.

I am sad. I am scared. This really hurt. I couldn't believe he said that. Is this ever going to get better?

Okay, that last one is asking again.

It turns it into more of a conversation, and one where you demonstrate faith (or at least begin to) that someone is there.

You might worry that it is a one-sided conversation.

It's not. You may not immediately feel it.

The greatest gift of healing through the Atonement I ever had came after just pouring my heart out until it was empty one night. I did that and I felt nothing.

I don't know whether it had been so emotional that I didn't realize I poured out my pain, or if it needed more time, but in the morning it was just gone. It took me a while to realize it, because I had gotten so used to hurting. I just know it worked.

I can't rule out that part of the value is that taking your troubles to God is a sign of faith that you matter; you are important enough that God listening to you is reasonable.

I do know that is true.

Knowing and choosing

As I am leading toward the need for prophets and for covenants, I want to spend a little more time on what kind of Savior we get.

I acknowledge that it is easy to hear and read about the love and the humility and submission and still come away with a dominator culture feeling. I think that is a very powerful impulse in humans -- the "natural man" if you will.

If you keep rejecting it, it does largely lose its hold over you, but there is a lot of societal reinforcement. It takes a conscious rejection, choosing that you are not going to try and control others, but that you are going to love and help them as the individuals they are, not the minions you reward for conforming to what you think they should be.

Thinking along those lines, it strikes me that there are specific things about the Savior that were easy to reject, but that are important to accept.

One is that he was not a political savior. He did not come to cast off the Roman yoke, which is what many people were hoping for.

He could have done that, just like he could have kept feeding multitudes, but that wasn't the essential thing.

Looking back, we can see so much in the scriptures -- Isaiah, sure, but not only Isaiah -- that was telling that all along. It is a lot easier to understand prophecy in retrospect. Read Revelation and then see how much you think you know about how it will unfold. 

People get interesting ideas, like maybe the "scorpions" are tanks. Even if that is a correct conclusion, that comes from knowing what a tank looks like now.

I remember once there was a space probe going up that if it crashed back to Earth would have been an environmental disaster. I thought maybe that was Wormwood, the star falling and poisoning the waters, but it didn't crash, so that wasn't it. 

That was many years ago.

I make that point because I don't want to spend a lot of time judging people who didn't understand things. The truth is, prophets are more valuable in their calls to repentance than in what they tell us about things that will happen. 

There is value in the assurance that comes with the foretelling. I am grateful to know that there will be a return, and a resurrection, and that our souls are eternal.

There is also a harm in spending time thinking that I am better than all of these past people who didn't know what was what.

Looking at others to feel superior to them is also a step in the wrong direction, not great based on knowledge, perhaps worse if basing it on physical strength or wealth.

Potentially, I might do even worse by trying to make up for my lack of those things by aligning with someone stronger and richer who thinks that might makes right or that laws are only for controlling poor people.

As much as I have felt some of these things in my heart, and as much as the scriptures are not one hundred percent clear on anything (and what comprehension or use could you have for something that told you exactly how Earth was created?) those teaching have been helpful to me in my journey.

Sometimes it is just that as I start reading one thing I get an idea about something else. Surely the Holy Ghost is an important part of that.

There are still things I would not get on my own, and there are people who would struggle getting it on their own (or not try), so those witnesses are important and needed. They come from liable mortals who have strengths along with their weaknesses, as do we. That is not only why the Holy Ghost is important but also why we all need repentance. It all goes together.

And as important as it is to have prophets, and scriptures, and to read those scriptures and to listen to the Holy Ghost, then I want to make this point too:

When we commit to the Savior (but there probably will be another post that gets into ordinances), we are committing to a Savior who promises forgiveness for sins in a way that focuses on the healing of both the sinner and the sinned against, and that involves humility and sacrifice.

We are accepting that we do not get to force our beliefs upon others, even for their own good.

We are accepting that the spiritual is more important than the temporal, even though what we can give others in terms of food and healing and time is something we will give generously.

We choose that partnership, accepting that there will be trials that refine us, but finding that there is joy and sanctification in that process.

My Redeemer Lives

In going over how perfect and logical some things are, that does not make them intuitive. 

Many years ago I remember reading Robinson Crusoe. I was surprised to find a part where Crusoe is trying to teach Friday about his religion. While the drawing toward "God" seemed fairly universal, only revelation could explain about Christ.

Certainly other religions do have stories of suffering gods, and perhaps resurrection (Dionysius and Osiris come to mind), atonement for sins is different.

I remember a unit on Egypt with a picture of the heart being weighed against a feather. I was fairly comfortable that I had done more good things than bad things, so if those were weighed against each other I would be okay, but all of my heart against a feather?

And yet, that is what we believe, that we need to be free of sin. That happens not by leading a perfect life, but by repenting, and by having your sins cleansed through the Atonement.

It takes a while to grasp the importance of it. It is easy to feel like you aren't really that terrible, which is probably true. Then you might not feel the need, which is still wrong.

It is not just that Christ has paid the price for our sins. It is also that he has paid the price for the healing of those wrongs caused by the sins.

We can cause a lot of harm without meaning to, or perhaps even knowing what we have done. As we grow in charity, we learn to care about that, but as we grow in wisdom we also see the impossibility of making things right on our own.

We will also often come up against the apparent impossibility of healing on our own, whether the injuries are from our own choices or the choices of others.

He even brings our dead back to us, or us back to our living, as the case may be.

There is a way, and the way in which it was worked means that we are also understood. Everything that makes it hard to be good and kind and grow and not just do something stupid in a minute that causes problems for years...

He knows all of that, and loves us. I don't know whether that love is because of or in spite of. It might be both.

It works.

That is how life is eventually fair, and better.

That is how God can be kind, even with suffering in the world.

That is how we heal.