When Elder Durrant gave his talk about ponderizing, my family was not impressed. My daughter spent much of the talk groaning, screeching, and generally indicating her rejection of the bespoke word Elder Durrant created to make his point.
A month later we happened to have the missionaries over. As we talked about the gospel, they asked us if we were ponderizing. I tried to explain that I have done something like what Elder Durrant suggested for years. For example, when a missionary I would write important scriptures in calligraphy and post them on the walls of my apartment in Italy. My study of scripture has never been simple reading of the word followed by forgetfulness.
But my family members challenged me. I was not, they maintained, doing what the missionaries meant. They got a bit vicious, in fact. By the end of the week they understood how much their criticism had hurt me.
Coming from my own micro experience being an authority figure who had been reviled, I thought on Elder Durrant. Perhaps I could give his variant of pondering the scriptures a try.
Turns out there is an app for that.
The app is free, so it isn’t as though anyone is earning money on my use of the app (though in-app purchases are offered should you want to use other graphics or verses in scripture beyond the ones included in the limited library).
There, on the glowing “wall” that I spend so much time looking at is a simple heart graphic. If I tap on it, I see the verse I have selected for the week. Even if I don’t tap on it, I get notifications as often as I have set, daily, and even multiple times a day. If I forget to select another scripture at the end of the week (or other periodicity I specify), the app gently reminds me select another verse.
The “free” scripture passages are the 100 Seminary Scripture Mastery verses (25 for each of the four courses of study), the 13 Articles of Faith, and verses associated with a short list of gospel topics:
- Come Unto Jesus
- Faith
- Love
- Plan of Salvation
- Prayer
- Restoration
- Sabbath Day Observance
- Temple Work
- Testify of Christ
- Words of Christ
In the sea of notifications I get on a daily basis, the daily ponderize notifications are serene and welcome.
Another feature/bug is that the free backgrounds change. So the picture that you loved will likely cycle out of the available set. This is irritating if you really liked the background you had chosen, but gives you a chance to select a new serene background. For those who get fatigued looking at the “same” thing, this may actually be a good thing.
The LDS Gospel Library app lets you set a reminder, but it will just pop the text of the selected item on your screen at the designated time. It doesn’t even have an option for you to return to the app itself, say if you wanted a constant reminder to continue reading.
What am I pondering now? D&C 6:36 – “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.” The image shows an individual looking up into the starry night sky.
Despite the disdain with which I first greeted the idea of ponderizing, I am grateful for this little app that will remind me of beloved scriptures in a gentle and easy manner on a daily basis.
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The scriptures are wonderful! I hope each Latter-day Saint finds an approach that works for him or her. I’m teaching early-morning seminary (Old Testament) as well as Sunday third-hour Aaronic Priesthood, so I have a lot of opportunities to read and consider the scriptures. However, I haven’t adopted the “ponderize” approach. That approach won’t work for me.
My response during the address may have been much like your daughter’s. We were in the chapel, and although I was silent, my son sensed my discomfort and/or felt his own. We talked about it on the way home. I explained that each speaker makes an offering, a gift, and that each address will be needed or appreciated to varying degrees by different listeners. That’s how the Lord works. That’s why we have a multitude of speakers. After receiving a gift, some people will immediately wear it, and others will put the gift in the closet. That’s okay. But I am troubled by the multitude of suggestions we get and the accompanying apparent expectation that each and every member must immediately adopt each and every suggestion. That creates an unhealthy environment of unreasonable expectations. So in your case, I hope the missionaries brought up “ponderizing” on their own initiative, as part of the normal flow of the conversation, rather than on assignment from their mission president.
Thanks for your posting. I hope the app is helpful to all those who choose to use it.
I home taught a man for many years who once served a senior mission with his wife as a supervisor of translators at Church headquarters.
He had all kinds of fascinating stories about the challenges and blessings of arranging for Conference talks to be translated into over a hundred languages, more or less in real time.
He left again on another mission before the “ponderize” talk, but after hearing his many stories, I found myself wondering how much the translators struggled to figure out how to render a neological English portmanteau into all those languages.
I sometimes listen to or read conference in two other languages. Really all the speakers should be given some brief training about avoiding talk themes that are little more than puns. It really does a disservice to the global church when talks are so anglocentric as to be virtually unintelligible. But to answer the question–often the interpreters (or translators since the talks are mostly pretranslated rather than interpreted simultaneously) will just say the pun in English and add a little explanation. Usually it’s not such a big deal since most people elsewhere are used to having to deal with foreign terms and cultural references that don’t translate well in the media they consume. Occasionally the results are just a mishmash and the talk is completely ruined, which is maybe an indication of how much substance there was to begin with. Substance always translates since there is something real (i.e. substantial) that you can just restate. Substance is not a result of linguistic coincidences. Which should give us pause each time we go all proof-texty on single words or phrases in the KJV or any other single expression of Truth.
I think that is why I adore the conference talks President Uchtdorf gives. They are full of the glory of the gospel, a joy completely unbounded by the habits of American Mormonism.
I would just say that there are some really nice features of the Ponderize app that I wouldn’t mind seeing in the Gospel Library App. So it would be awesome to have designated pages (pinned pages) in my Gospel Library where I could set reminders which, when clicked, would pop me back to the live content of that page. Say I was a teacher and wanted to be popped back to whatever lesson in my manual I had most recently be looking at. Or if I’m doing a reading of, say, the Book of Mormon by some deadline for Seminary or other challenge, it would be nice for the app to let me set a reminder for times when I know I might have a few minutes to further my reading toward the goal, without having to go searching for things.
On the other hand, I imagine that the current ponderize thing might be similar to the origin of rosary beads-a formulaic way of contemplating the grace of God that became fossified into much more than mere suggestion. On the other hand, who knows how many Christians over time have been able to deepen their personal connection to God through such tangible helps, such as rosary beads or scripture apps.
I still refuse to use the term “ponderi..”, after the fiasco that occurred with selling tshirts.
However, the processes are good ones to help us understand scripture better.
My only comment is this, and it’s one that I’ve had to make several times online and in person: he is NOT “Elder” Durrant. He is NOT a General Authority and should not be referred to by a title and calling he has not been given. He is BROTHER Durrant.
https://www.lds.org/church/leader/devin-g-durrant?lang=eng