Day 4

Goal of the day: memorize more scriptures! This goes along with the Ponderize talk that was so famous this Conference. I read 2 Nephi 4:15--"my soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them, and writeth them for the learning and the profit of my children." So then I thought, I can't teach my children the gospel in a powerful way if I don't know and love the scriptures. I thought about what I could do to love the scriptures more and decided to memorize more of them. I already use Quizlet for my classes, so I figured that I would use it to help me keep track of and memorize more scriptures. Here's the link if anyone wants to join in!

Okay folks, I'm doing a 30-day challenge (AKA until November 21th). I want to have a daily goal from scripture study for a month. This is my third day. My first day was to listen to less Pandora and more Mormon Channel Radio (which has been SO UPLIFTING!). My second day it was to set up some dating rules (which I am still working on, but fully intend to follow through with). Today it's to try to have more dignified speech, in word and thought! Not that it's terrible now, but I want to see what happens if I replace the "dang its" and "shoots" with "oh nos!" and "bothers!" (I'm still trying to find good replacement words...) Also, it just so happens that I have a rubber band bracelet on my wrist...I'm going to use it whenever I catch myself saying those words. I actually did something similar in the MTC--we were supposed to say "elders and sisters" instead of "you guys" (because of the importance of our callings) and it was so hard! But every time I accidentally said it, I would take my shoes off and put them back on. I know, I'm weird. But it worked, I think! So, stay tuned for tomorrow's challenge!

(Also, I have already said "darn it" before I could even post this! And then I said "darn it" because my rubber band bracelet wasn't snapping right! haha. This might be hard...)

How to Improve Your Prayers

The Spirit whispered something important to me about prayer. I realized that I had thought of it as a means to maintain my spiritual status. What Nephi used it for was to help him progress (to have his heart softened, to learn how to build a boat, etc.). Prayer will become more meaningful to me as I use it as a means to ask Heavenly Father what I need to do next to achieve my goals. This is the whole message behind my favorite talk from this Conference! It is "What Lack I Yet?" from Elder Larry R. Lawrence. SO GOOD. Ten minutes well spent. Every step we take towards righteousness will make us happier and happier. I think this was important for me to realize, because often I don't envision myself being happier as I keep more commandments! I normally just envision myself trying to dutifully do it even if I don't want to. But I really am happier whenever I keep another commandment. And that is the way that will encourage us to WANT to keep the commandments. Happiness is a huge incentive--really, it's the reason we do everything we do. Enos hungered AFTER "the joy of the saints...sunk deep into [his] heart." (Enos 1:3)