I’ve finished my third week of reading The New Testament. I’m really almost through – it’s crazy! I really enjoyed Luke this week. And I’ve had some more thoughts about Mark. The Bible Dictionary suggests that Mark might have been written at the request of church leaders. In that sense, Mark is a straight-forward account of his experience and certainly a valuable testimony to the reality of the Savior’s life and mission. Luke’s testimony seemed full of little details that brought scenes to life. I also read quite a few Pauline epistles this week, as well as the letters of Peter. I love the way they all begin and end the same way – it’s like a little insight into the standard letter format of the times (at least among church members). Most of the reading this week dealt...
So, I’m tired of the cold and I figured at least my blog could be spring-like. Can you be ready for spring in January?? Read More →
Well, I’m a week and a half into my challenge. Almost half way through! Some thoughts on the experiment. I’ve read all of Matthew and Mark. Took me almost a week to realize that each week’s assignment is anchored by one of the gospels. Matthew had a pronounced theme for me this time through – Christ’s life was one of prophecy fulfilled. Mark seems sort of lacking in character. Most of the stories were ones Matthew had already covered. I’m still thinking about Mark. Of course, I could pull out my Doctrinal New Testament Commentary by McConkie, but I’m trying to see what I can remember and notice from my reading. Since this is such a quick race through the New Testament, I don’t want to get bogged down with extra studying – just want to focus on the scriptures themselves. ...
So, Tom gave me a new set of scriptures for Christmas this year. I’m sad to be moving on from my old set, but the cover has come off in the back despite a couple of attempts to repair, and there are scribble marks and even a tear or two (although writing it down makes those scriptures seem charming!). Anyhow, I requested the large print version since my eyes will only be getting worse as the years go by – and the margins are larger so I can make more notes! I thought about what I want to mark in these new scriptures … I don’t really want to duplicate all that I have in my old scriptures … but I do want things like seminary scripture mastery scriptures marked. In my old set I also marked scriptures from the missionary discussions, which was nice when I was studying those topics. Anyhow. I have marked...
This was my first week as the ward Primary pianist (Primary is my church’s organization for children). I’ve been practicing for almost a month. The tricky part is that there are probably 50 songs in the songbook that I could be asked to play in any given Sunday – songs that the children are learning, favorites that they always request, songs for birthdays, songs for visitors, activity songs … it’s far beyond intimidating!! Fortunately, most of the music isn’t complicated (though, of course we are learning a couple of challenging songs this year…). While I had a good three or four years of piano lessons, due to my short-sightedness all lessons ended after my sixth grade year (that would be at the age of 12). All playing I’ve done since then has been for purely enjoyment purposes and...