Old Testament for 2010

Every year I try to keep up on my SS and RS lessons and read the week before and at least have an idea of what we're going to talk about. Even when I have callings that take me away from these classes, I try. I usually start the year out real good and then get more and more slack as the year progresses, not real good.

I know we are supposed to read scriptures everyday. In fact we are encouraged to read from the Book of Mormon every day, as well as the book we are studying in SS that year. Sometimes it's really hard to make the time for all the reading it requires. So I keep trying to make it work.

Last year I was looking over my class member study guide for the D&C and Church History and was surprised to read the following on page 2 & 3...

"Contributing to Class Discussions

You share with your Gospel Doctrine teacher the responsibility to help the class be successful. Come to class prepared to contribute to the discussion and to share personal testimony, feelings, and experiences regarding the principles and doctrines being taught.

Suggested Reading Plan

...In addition to completing the reading assignment for each lesson, you are encouraged to read the Doctrine and Covenants from beginning to end during this course."

I know this isn't "new" we are supposed to come prepared to get the most out of the lessons taught. And I can't say I did a whole lot better than years before, but I tried, most of the time! :) But I did decide to take the "encouragement" to read the D&C from beginning to end during the year, seriously. I figured I could at least do that! How do I stay on track?

I decided to make a schedule to keep myself on track. I needed some flexibility, so I decided on a number of pages per week, instead of per day. It worked out great. I recently finished and it felt so good to at least accomplish that! But it was a piece of cake at 7 pages a week.

I looked on to this year. Oooooo! The Old Testament is a far cry from the D&C. I haven't read it from beginning to end since seminary! It has 1184 pages! I decided to bite the bullet and take the same challenge and just commit myself to reading it! So yesterday, I worked up my pages, it's 23 pages a week, just over 3 times the amount of pages from last year. It's going to take a little more determination and time, but I think it will be worth it, especially the obedience part.

I was surprised when I opened up my study guide and it didn't have the challenge to read it from beginning to end. I was actually disappointed!! It also starts with the Pearl of Great Price, the books of Moses and Abraham. I decided to go ahead and do it anyway. It's going to take some time and effort to keep up with the class, but since I will be ahead in my weekly reading it shouldn't be too much to refresh with the study guide questions and scriptures each week.

So, Now that I've made a short story very long, and to explain why I went to the trouble of telling you all of this... I want to challenge all of you to read the Old Testament from beginning to end with me this next year!

I'm going to put my reading schedule on the side bar of my blog to remind me where I should be every week. Follow along and let me know how your doing! Since the class starts with Moses and Abraham in the PofGP, if you haven't read that recently, read it between now and Jan 1st. It's only 42 pages long. Then start with Genesis on Jan 1st. My week 1 starts Jan 4th to 10th.

Who's going to do it with me? Come on, you can do it!!