Pres. Nelson issued four challenges to the sisters in the Saturday night Women’s Session of General Conference. They are:
1. Participate in a 10 day social media fast — removing negative influences from your life, and things that cause you to have impure thoughts.
2. Read the Book of Mormon between now and the end of year (that’s 84 days as of today).
3. Establish a pattern of regular temple attendance. If you’re far from a temple study the standard works and other church materials on temples.
4. Participate fully in Relief Society.
Saturday night and over the course of Sunday, my Facebook feed filled with girlfriends signing off of social media for 10 days. But, let’s not forget the other three parts of the challenge. I wanted to focus first on the Book of Mormon reading challenge — as that is something I can do without having to rearrange life too much.
Our friends over at Cranial Hiccups have created an 80 day reading chart that will help you keep on track with this challenge. It’s free to download.
We have many promises given to us as we read the Book of Mormon. Two of my favorite include one from Pres. Marion G. Romney. He said,
“I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. Children will be more responsive and submissive to the counsel of their parents. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope, and charity – the pure love of Christ – will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness” (April 1980, General Conference).
The second one is from Pres. Monson’s last Conference talk in April 2017.
“My dear associates in the work of the Lord, I implore each of us to prayerfully study and ponder the Book of Mormon each day. As we do so, we will be in a position to hear the voice of the Spirit, to resist temptation, to overcome doubt and fear, and to receive heaven’s help in our lives. I so testify with all my heart in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”
I’ll be checking in with my thoughts as I go thru the Book of Mormon. I hope that you will come back and share what you’re learning too. Happy Reading!
My daughter reminded me that we already put together a chart for reading the Book of Mormon as part of a program for reading all of the standard works in a year – it works out to ~7 pages a day.
Since I’m not doing social media, games, and my TV shows, I’ve got all kinds of time to take on re-reading the Book of Mormon.
For my part, I’ll be focusing on the mentions of God’s plan to save all mankind, content the Deuteronomists apparently stripped from the Bible circa 500 BC.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to see all that they stripped out and why? I’ve always wondered…
I was trying to figure out “how many pages/chapters” a day last night, but my brain doesn’t really work that way. I’m thankful Montserrat Wadsworth figured it out.
I want to do a weekly update, so I hope you’ll come up for air Meg and chime in.
I’m excited…my copy of Grant Hardy’s Readers Edition of The Book of Mormon just arrived. Now I can read with fresh eyes and without the temptation to get sidetracked by the notes and cross references I’ve written all over my current “slow study” of my electronic version. Thanks for the reference to the chart.