90-Day Book of Mormon Challenge

Today Bishop Cahoon issued a challenge (complete with a fresh copy and a reading schedule) to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days while raising the bar on scripture study. Here are the specific instructions he gave:

1. Start your scripture study with a prayer. Pray on your knees.
2. Set a pattern of when you will read.
3. Come with your questions, problems, and concerns of the day. (Give a purpose to the study and seek to learn what the Lord would have you learn.)
4. Look for teachings of and about the Savior.
5. Start a scripture journal. Record answers and impressions. Then you can go back to these notes and remember what you learned and felt.

A couple of other things that were mentioned (we had our December "5th Sunday" lesson today, instead, because most of the ward is back after the holidays, now) were the study of how long it takes to become an expert in something and the meaning of inversion and how to rise above the inversion.

For those who don't know, whether it applies to Bill Gates or the Beatles or any other expert in a particular field, the requirement seems to be 10,000 hours to become an expert. Bishop Cahoon suggested that the same applies to becoming an expert in the scriptures. Obviously we won't reach that many hours in a single year, but hopefully we will over a lifetime. We need to come to love the scriptures and to know the truths within their pages.

For anyone living along the Wasatch front, we experience at least one inversion each winter. The word inversion means a reversal of normal. Often, this involves colder air in the valleys and warmer air up the canyons and in the mountains. It also means that pollutants get trapped in the valleys; I could handle the cold better if my head and lungs didn't become so miserable from breathing all the pollutants in the air. And then there is the fact that whatever light reaches us has to filter through everything else in the air. The adversary also tries to create spiritual inversions, removing light wherever possible. Just as we can drive up a canyon to escape a physical inversion, we can also rise above a spiritual inversion. Through daily prayer and scripture study and living the gospel, we invite the light of Christ and of His gospel into our lives.

I am really excited for this 90-day challenge, which I began today. Part of it is the "challenge" of it: committing and then doing. Part of it is knowing that the rest of the ward received the same challenge. As we do this together, I believe we will become stronger and more unified as a ward. I also look forward to the personal spiritual blessings that I trust will come, including a greater outpouring of the Spirit and a greater love for the Lord, for His gospel, and for His children.

[As an additional note, if there are others who would like to join, feel free! Here is a link to the schedule: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5GibqiwenrtS2dxTUM1TFlCRTA]