I received this email from my friend Laura after President Hinckley passed away. I thought it was a wonderful idea and tribute to him. The letter read:
President Hinckley often stressed our making the Book of Mormon part of our lives. He was 97 when he passed away, and we would like to celebrate his life and teachings by reading the Book of Mormon in 97 days.
President Gordon B. Hinckley on the Book of Mormon
"I take in my hand the Book of Mormon. I read its words. I have read Joseph Smith's explanation of how it came to be. To the unbelieving it is a story difficult to accept, and critics for generations have worn out their lives writing books intended to refute that story and to offer other explanations than the one given by Joseph the Prophet. But to the open-minded, this critical writing has only stimulated them to dig deeper; and the more deeply they dig, the greater the accumulation of evidence for the validity of Joseph Smith's story. Still, as has been demonstrated for a hundred and fifty years, the truth of the Book of Mormon will not be determined by literary analysis or by scientific research, although these continue to be reassuring. The truth about the origins of the Book of Mormon will be determined today and tomorrow, as it has been throughout the yesterdays, by reading the book in a spirit of reverence and respect and prayer."( "Praise to the Man," Ensign, Aug. 1983, 4)
I have decided to join the other 29,244 "warriors" as the site calls them and read the Book of Mormon by May 10, 2008. While I am very happy to read the scriptures in honor our beloved prophet, I have more reasons to complete it. When President Hinckley originally asked church members to read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year, somehow I didn't get the message until late in the fall. I know that is no excuse and shows that I don't pick up my Ensign enough and read the First Presidency message, but I was very busy and tired with two small babies and I didn't finish the book by January 1.
Then last year our bishop encouraged our entire ward to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. He passed out sticker charts, quotes and I really thought it might happen, but once again I didn't complete it. Our bishop is a CEO of a company and is very much a business oriented person. At tithing settlement in December he pulled out the goals we had set the previous year and asked us if we remembered what they were and if we followed through with them. We then had to set a personal goal, a family goal and a goal as a couple in 2008. I told him I was going to read the Book of Mormon. Rich gave me a sweet smile like he was thinking, here we go again and he was right. I hadn't been good at reading in January, until I got this email.
I think this is finally my year! I am very excited that the site has a place I can record where I am at and I can post my progress on my side bar as a daily reminder of what I have to do. It is broken up into daily pages needed to be read which is great if I get behind. It will be harder to fail if I know I have a written statement saying I am going to do it.
The point is, I just needed an extra push to get this done and I'm grateful for the challenge. I encourage anyone who's like me and has a hard time squeezing it all in to try to just read 5.5 pages a day. That's what I'm telling myself!
If you would like to know more you can check out the website at http://www.hinckleychallenge.com/.
Happy Reading!
10 comments:
I'm also planning on doing this. I have no excuses this year and am excited to complete the challenge!
What a great challenge and experience that will be. I think, however, I'm going to have to use the excuse of packing/moving. I did meet his challenge to read the BoM before the end of the year from a couple of years ago. I loved it. It's amazing how it really takes reading at least 2 chapters a day to tangibly feel the impact of the scriptures in my life. So, I'll be excited to read about your progress!
Thanks for sharing this. I hadn't read about the challenge, so I'm glad you passed it along. I started the Book of Mormon again the first week of the new year, but I've fallen behind a bit. It will be nice to have this to chart my progress. It always helps to have a goal or deadline to make it happen. Thanks!
Cher, I'll be your encouragement the whole time. One year our Relief Society read The Book of Mormon in 40 days. It was super hard, but it was an amazing experience. I've actually read it in three weeks before (another challenge, I can't say no). Both of those experiences were very different from regular scripture study. Here's how I did it, and maybe this will help you. First I got one of The Book of Mormon books that they pass out to investigators. I found it easier to read because it was small, I took it everywhere with me, and I didn't get distracted by sidenotes I had in my other scriptures. Second, I'm a sucker for watching shows or reading books for leisure, so I decided to not allow myself to do those things until I'd read The Book of Mormon for the day. It actually was a big motivator, because if I had a show that I knew I wanted to watch, I knew I had to get my reading done. Of course, that was before I had DVR. Last, I read the book as if it were more of a story to be told rather than scripture. This may sound wierd, but you'd be surprised the things you can learn and see when you read the whole Book of Mormon in a short amount of time. You kind of get the aerial view, the overall picture of what it's all about. You don't worry about each individual verse or chapter, but you see feel the theme of the book. It's actually quite interesting.
Well, I hope this helps. I look forward to seeing how you're doing. I think it's great that you're tracking yourself where others can see it. It's more of an incentive to finish on time that way. Good luck! I'd love to hear the thoughts you have during the reading or after you finish. Love ya!
Thanks for the insight Amanda. I agree with all you said. I actually was only on page 5 until yesterday so I read it for an hour while I rode the bike. It was great to just dedicate a huge chunk of time to reading it non-stop. I have a small red army set and keep it close by. I am hoping to not watch TV while I exercise and only read. I think I can get about 30 pages a day. How great would that be to finish it before the goal!
And I know the sidebar tracker will be a HUGE motivator for me. It's sad that it takes something like this to get my engine started, but I often find if there is some accountablity to anything- it helps push me forward.
Love ya!
Cheryl, I got the same email. I must say I haven't been brave enough to sign up yet! I have no excuses for my lame attempts to scripture study! I am giving the lesson on the Book of Mormon this Sunday so between your example and my manual I am sure I will renew my efforts!
Kellie
I want this to be my year too. I'm really going to try. I get so frustrated with myself that I don't make scripture study a bigger priority. I've drawn the conclusion that I have to wake up before everyone else to have a moment to myself to read. There's just no other time that will work with my families schedule. I just need to start my day earlier. Why is this so hard for me? I feel like it starts too early already. Thanks for this great post to help me be more motivated.
what a great idea! I am totally and really going to try to do it! the calendar they provide sounds like it will help too!
Yay! I love your progress tracker - I need one of those!
Laura,
It's on the page where you submit your pages read. Copy the HTML and just add it to your sidebar under HTML link. You have to manually update it on your blog after you change it on the website. (You might have known all this already!)
Cheryl
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