Reading scriptures for the tired and confused


Sunday21
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I have finally come up with a scripture reading system that works for me. Read Book of Mormon morning and evening for about 15 minutes. Read the 24 hour Book of Mormon first so I know what is going on. If I am really tired read the same chapters over again morning and evening. Progress is slow but at least I am reading scriptures. I listen to podcasts on the lesson by the interpreter foundation on Sunday's. If I find the material boring or confusing, I go to the website'step by step through the book of Mormon'. I bought a timeline for the Book of Mormon on Amazon. Very helpful! Lots of people have the same name and there are flashbacks! If I don't know who someone is, wikipedia! My solution! And if I am really tired there is an app, gospel library that has an audio function. Wish I had figured this out years ago!

Edited by Sunday21
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53 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

So any cool tips that you have discovered?

Cool tips?  Your OP was pretty good.  I actually had a reading disability when I was younger.  And what you described was basically what I eventually came up with.  There was no other way around it.  So, I guess you could say I was perpetually tired and confused.  So, it's interesting that we came up with about the same solution.:)

What I do today is read the chapter headings.  I consider it a moment and develop questions about those topics.  Then I compare the verses to their applicable synopsis.  I go through the other verses and see how they relate to the syonopsis.  I look to see if my questions were answered.  I look for verses that did not merit a synoptic entry and wonder why or why not.

I find that the scriptures have much more meaning and I get a lot better comprehension when I have a question in mind and am seeking the answer.

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3 hours ago, Sunday21 said:

Oh and if I am really tired and busy, CDs of the Book of Mormon in the car. I buy the general conference talks on cd and listen in the car! 

So any cool tips that you have discovered?

You know all that is in the GL app, right?  Just set your phone to playing before you start your drive...  (You could also download all of conference - you don't have to do it talk by talk - and burn it to an audio CD, but that seems like more work than just letting the phone or a tablet do it...)

Edited by zil
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I plan to start a separate scripture journal.  When I eventually start, I'm going to read the BOM chapter by chapter - at least one chapter a day - with my journal open.  Then I will take down notes of what I feel and what I understand the chapter to be and what I want my children/future grandchildren to take from the chapter.  I was supposed to start this when the kids started school.  It's week 3 of school now and I still haven't started!

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Prior to my mission I started reading the scripture with the intent of understanding every verse.  I created a scripture journal where I recorded my impressions verse by verse.  The process took me over 13 years to complete and even though a lot of my comments were when I was a teenager – I still find my impressions to be remarkably insightful.

Currently; I seldom read scriptures front to back but prefer to study via electronic word search.  This is done by searching all the scriptures for a particular word – like salvation.  Not only will I search the scriptures for that particular word but, using the internet, I will look up the history and uses of the word, finding things like origin, synonyms and other related words and then doing word searches in scriptures on them as well.   I also expand my references to include scriptural structure beyond a particular verse – paying particular attention to paragraph symbols provided in the Church’s edition of the King James Version – sadly the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pear of Great Price do not use any structural constructs beyond verses – so I look for Chiasms and other structures on my own – marking and labeling structures as I go.   Often I will consider other sources for insights and other possible meanings for the particular word being studied – and of course I use prayer and pondering as a study resource.

Reading scriptures like a novel is a great way to put me to sleep but utilizing the scriptures as a means of reference and understanding I find addictive and exciting. 

 

The Traveler

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29 minutes ago, Traveler said:

Reading scriptures like a novel is a great way to put me to sleep but utilizing the scriptures as a means of reference and understanding I find addictive and exciting. 

 

The Traveler

My 12-year-old son texted this to me last Tuesday:

"Mom, remember how I said that a book needs to be exciting and have an engaging beginning for me to want to read it?  Well, 1984 has this boring beginning where I don't know who is the narrator or the characters, and was just talking plainly about something boring.  I read the first 7 chapters of the Book of Mormon.  Boom!  Nephi decapitates the ruler of Jerusalem and steals his money.  That is something I'm looking for.  Engaging beginning."

Okay... so Laban wasn't the ruler and wasn't decapitated and Nephi didn't steal his money... but regardless...

Yeah, I don't know if there's something about the age of 12... when my other son was that age, he was so intrigued with the story of Shiz getting decapitated he got several of his classmates to read the Book of Mormon just to read about it.

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I have found that as I read a verse if I can come up with a question , it stimulates my "little gray cells"  and leads to more thoughts and study.  My latest question was about the brother of Jared and the barges, the stones he went and mined, the question made me research Hugh Nibley and what He had to say about it was amazing. Noah  also had a stone or crystal, that  would become bright at night and dimmer during the day. The fact that Noah was mentioned and the barges were designed as the ark ,BoJared knew of the traditions. The stone that Noah is reported to have that gave light in the Ark was called Pyrophilus ,This stone was believed to be pure crystal and could only be produced or made luminous by the application of terrific heat. It had the miraculous quality of enabling its possessor to pass unharmed through the depth of the water . As stated by Dr. Nibley this tradition existed throughout the ancient and medieval world , this puts new meaning on the brother of Jared as he asked the Lord about light and then went to the mountain to mine the stones.  So if I had never asked a question, or thought about it would I get a fuller answer ? I have asked questions and in so doing gotten some amazing answers. Ask a question that's what the Brother of Jared did to the Lord and look at his answer.

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7 hours ago, Older/Wiser? said:

I have found that as I read a verse if I can come up with a question , it stimulates my "little gray cells"  and leads to more thoughts and study.  My latest question was about the brother of Jared and the barges, the stones he went and mined, the question made me research Hugh Nibley and what He had to say about it was amazing. Noah  also had a stone or crystal, that  would become bright at night and dimmer during the day. The fact that Noah was mentioned and the barges were designed as the ark ,BoJared knew of the traditions. The stone that Noah is reported to have that gave light in the Ark was called Pyrophilus ,This stone was believed to be pure crystal and could only be produced or made luminous by the application of terrific heat. It had the miraculous quality of enabling its possessor to pass unharmed through the depth of the water . As stated by Dr. Nibley this tradition existed throughout the ancient and medieval world , this puts new meaning on the brother of Jared as he asked the Lord about light and then went to the mountain to mine the stones.  So if I had never asked a question, or thought about it would I get a fuller answer ? I have asked questions and in so doing gotten some amazing answers. Ask a question that's what the Brother of Jared did to the Lord and look at his answer.

Great method!

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On 9/2/2016 at 11:49 AM, Traveler said:

I also expand my references to include scriptural structure beyond a particular verse – paying particular attention to paragraph symbols provided in the Church’s edition of the King James Version – sadly the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pear of Great Price do not use any structural constructs beyond verses – so I look for Chiasms and other structures on my own – marking and labeling structures as I go.

Have you considered using other editions that do break them up into paragraphs? I'm not sure about the Doctrine and Covenants or Pearl of Great Price, but I know there are editions of the Book of Mormon out there that have been paragraphized.

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3 hours ago, SilentOne said:

Have you considered using other editions that do break them up into paragraphs? I'm not sure about the Doctrine and Covenants or Pearl of Great Price, but I know there are editions of the Book of Mormon out there that have been paragraphized.

Thank you. I did not know this!

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If I was not so lazy, I imagine I would find the byu scripure citation to be an extremely useful tool for scripture study. On the occasions when I am pondering how to interpret a particular verse, or interested in finding out how a particular verse has been used/interpreted, I find it to be very helpful to look it up on the citation index. It shows how particular verses have been used and quoted in talks given in General Conference. I recommend it.

http://scriptures.byu.edu/

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1 hour ago, askandanswer said:

If I was not so lazy, I imagine I would find the byu scripure citation to be an extremely useful tool for scripture study. On the occasions when I am pondering how to interpret a particular verse, or interested in finding out how a particular verse has been used/interpreted, I find it to be very helpful to look it up on the citation index. It shows how particular verses have been used and quoted in talks given in General Conference. I recommend it.

http://scriptures.byu.edu/

This is really cool. Thanks for letting us know!

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1 hour ago, askandanswer said:

If I was not so lazy, I imagine I would find the byu scripure citation to be an extremely useful tool for scripture study. On the occasions when I am pondering how to interpret a particular verse, or interested in finding out how a particular verse has been used/interpreted, I find it to be very helpful to look it up on the citation index. It shows how particular verses have been used and quoted in talks given in General Conference. I recommend it.

http://scriptures.byu.edu/

And, "there's an app for that"!  So you can have it right on your phone / tablet.  It's called "Citation Index" - and is free in an app store (virtually) near you.

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As far as I’m concerned, I always loved the scriptures. Actually, I have more than three sets of the standard works in my own language (Portuguese). One I use to take with me to Church, meetings and Institute classes. Others serve me in various purposes: in one of them I used a color system that worked fine for me. For example, prayer = blue, scriptures and preaching the gospel = green, faith, works and obedience = yellow, and so on. I got astonished when I realized (after finishing labeling this set of scripture with these and other color labels) how much importance is given to prayer, faith and obedience. Other sets I take with me to work and label the scripture passages in a different pattern.

From President Eyring and Elder Bednar I just got the advice of purchasing a Book of Mormon to use it to find answers to specific questions (just like @Carborendum said he does). Now I have two Books of Mormon. One serves me as my source for advice about my most recent Church calling: second counselor in the bishopric of our ward. I always read it trying to find ways to better serve in this calling and it’s impressive how the Lord shows us things according to the faith, diligence and heed which we give unto them (1 Nephi 16:28). The other BOM I take in my pocket wherever I go and always take a look at it when I want to remember a principle or a doctrine. Both work as my personal Urim and Thummin.

I also have versions of the scriptures in other languages, such as English, Spanish, German, French and Italian. I also have the scriptures in Hebrew, Greek and Latin. I have a personal testimony that the more languages you know, the easier it is to understand the Holy Scriptures. In many situations, when I was reading the scriptures in my own language and came across a verse I couldn’t understand, I turned to the scriptures in other languages and could finally understand that verse better.

I have a strong testimony of the sacredness and importance of the Scriptures. Today I know what Alma, the younger, meant when he said:

Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me  (Alma 32:2.)

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