Scripture Challenges

[Fether]

Does anyone else absolutely despise it when a stake president or mission president challenges everyone to read the scripture in a certain amount of time? Twice in my mission Word was sent out that “we were going to read the whole Book of Mormon together!” I then had to drop where I was in my Book of Mormon studies,  and often times other things too, and spend the next 3 months plowing through the Book of Mormon.

Well my Stake President extended the same challenge to the stake for preparation for stake conference and so here I am again, going from studying a chapter or two from the Book of Mormon, Chapter from OT, and a chunk of “Temple and the Cosmos” to trying to plow through the Book of Mormon to be ready for Stake Conference. Today I decided to quit so I could go back and start spending more time in chapters and not worry about reading the right amount of pages each day.

What are your thoughts of scripture challenges? Most of me hates them but part of me is saying “your leaders are inspired and receive revelation for everyone including you” ... that part of me makes me grumpy. I’m also going to talk to my bishop and ask what he thinks (I imagine he will just laugh for me bringing up such a trivial thing xD ).

[Maureen]

Are these scripture challenges mandatory? Can you just ignore the challenge and just keep reading the scriptures you choose?

M.

[Alex]

Hmm, it's a bit like an eating contest in that you don't get time to enjoy the different delicate flavors, the subtle nuances and depth- it's a quantity challenge when it should be a quality challenge perhaps?

Reading like that is a bit like those contiki bus tours around Europe where the victims stop in each capital city for a day and learn nothing of the people or the culture, then they go home and brag that they've 'been to Paris and Vienna' etc. I can't stand dinner parties with braggers like that- I find I must call them out.

I mean, women don't praise men for having sex in 2 minutes so why do Mormons brag that they've read the B.O.M. in 2 weeks ?

 

[zil]

I have learned (and it took me too long to do it, IMO) that there are blessings which come from acting on counsel we receive from our priesthood leaders¹, even when the counsel seems unimportant or questionable² to us.  Sometimes the blessings relate to or stem from the counseled behavior.  Sometimes they relate to or stem from the act of faith, humility, sacrifice, or obedience required to submit to one with stewardship or authority over us.  Either way, if we are a willing participant, the blessings come (sometimes it requires conscious effort to recognize this fact).

¹By which I mean those who have stewardship over you (e.g. your stake president, not someone else's Amazing Bishop with a Brilliant Idea™)

²All the usual caveats about criminality and insanity apply.

[Vort]

@Fether: Candidly, I agree with you. I feel that way, too. But I think we're wrong. This last General Conference featured two apostles testifying that they accepted the prophet's counsel to reread the Book of Mormon starting immediately, and that they experienced great blessings for their obedience.

There is power in doing things as a group. Sometimes it's not about us, it's about everyone else. And in those circumstances, it's curious how often doing things for everyone else ends up being about us, after all.

[Fether]

1 hour ago, Vort said:

@Fether: Candidly, I agree with you. I feel that way, too. But I think we're wrong. This last General Conference featured two apostles testifying that they accepted the prophet's counsel to reread the Book of Mormon starting immediately, and that they experienced great blessings for their obedience.

There is power in doing things as a group. Sometimes it's not about us, it's about everyone else. And in those circumstances, it's curious how often doing things for everyone else ends up being about us, after all.

Thanks for your comment Vort! But those weren’t time bound where you had to read x-amount pages a day, which is what I’m doing right now, to keep up with everyone else. “If you are not reading the Book of Mormon each day, please do so” - President Monson (I don’t remember much from the two talks this last General Conference, but I’m pretty sure neither of them changed the Prophets commandment). I respect his advice and since then have done so with pleasure. The Last time bound scripture challenge was when Hinkley challenged the world to read the Book of Mormon in a year, which I thought was a reasonable challenge that didn’t force the world to keep track of pages they read.

[NeuroTypical]

Yeah, don't expect such challenges to go away any time soon.  We had Elder Dube of the 70 come and speak to our stake, and he issued the same challenge - that we start the BoM from the beginning, devote 10 in a day to it until we finish the book.  He's a funny personable guy originally from Zimbabwe.  Speaking in broken English, he extended the challenge and asked if everyone would accept.  When we gave a lackluster response, he grinned and said "Oh brothers and sisters - mebbe I have them lock the doors and I preach at you until daylight.  Now will you accept this challenge?"

I accepted, even though I am currently in the middle of my own personal scripture reading program, and his would throw it off.  I plan to keep doing mine, which is 5 chapters a week, no matter how long or short, which I started 6 months ago.  I figure as long as I'm doing something that roughly encompasses the challenge, that the Lord will be merciful when I'm judged for shouting 'yes' so he wouldn't lock the doors, even though it meant agreeing to something I am only tangentially going to follow.

If I stop posting, it's because I got hit by lightning.

[Guest]

16 hours ago, Fether said:

I then had to drop where I was in my Book of Mormon studies,  and often times other things too, and spend the next 3 months plowing through the Book of Mormon.

Why did you do that?

You can do both.  You read where you are.  Then you spend some time reading with the others.  You're splitting your time between the standard works.  Just add one more to it.

BoM (self study), OT (self study), BoM (with others).   It wouldn't mean anything if it were completely convenient for everyone.

But the way I read the BoM I read it about 5 or 6 times a year, so not as big a deal for me.

[seashmore]

Honestly, how I feel about scripture challenges has a lot to do with how I feel about those extending them. I appreciate President Monson,  love his messages, and believe he is a prophet of God, but I don't really feel that I have a personal connection with him. So when he suggested to read the BoM each day, I kind of did it. Bare minimum effort has yielded bare minimum results situation.

At our first stake conference in May/June, we were challenged to read the BoM by the next one, which was last weekend. I really don't feel connected to my current stake president. In my recommend interview, he was more interested in chatting about how much everyone in the stake loves our branch than getting to know me personally. I waited a couple of months, did a big push, and ended up falling off the wagon and short of the goal. I don't recall any of the high council Sunday speakers talking about the challenge or it being mentioned in the Sunday meeting. 

Comparing it with a challenge from six years ago, when the stake president (I've moved and he's been released  since then) issued a challenge to read the BoM twice in that calendar year. I blew that out of the water. I finished where I had been (about halfway), read it twice through, and then read it backwards chapter by chapter in the last six weeks of the year. Not only did I feel more connected to the person issuing the challenge (I just ran into him and his wife at a multi stake dance and they recognized me as someone familiar, even if they may not have remembered my name) but the high councilors and other leaders would often make mention of it when participating in sacrament meeting or Sunday School lessons. There was a concerted effort to keep it in our minds, which sent the message that it was something they felt was truly inspired, rather than something that's probably just a good idea. 

And I guess that is probably how I determine how committed I am to challenges like these. If it feels like it's just a good idea, I'll give it half a chance. But if I feel like it's truly inspired, I'm all in! Also, I don't do well with self-guided study. Challenges like this give me structure and purpose to my study, which increases the likelihood that I'll actually do it. 

Edited December 17, 2017 by seashmore