Thursday, January 24, 2008

The Laimana Method: flip open and read

Wanting to feel more like a full-fledged member of the church, within my first year I made a decision to read the entire Book of Mormon all the way through. Ditto for the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price.

I can report I was able to read through all three.

I then reembarked on another go-thru of the Book of Mormon, but my daily reading fell off and I only got up to Alma 45-ish.

A few weeks ago, a longtime member of our ward, John Laimana (pictured with wife Jane at left), was called to be the new teacher for the Gospel Essentials class at church. John has been inspired to encourage us in the class to read the scriptures all the time. Not a new revelation by any means, but what he suggested has helped me be more consistent with my scripture reading.

What Brother Laimana suggested was to just open up the scriptures to any page and read what was there. I took up his suggestion and amazingly, I have come up with some pretty amazing insights. Brother Laimana calls these "Aha!" moments.

Just today, for example, I picked up a pocket version of the Doctrine and Covenents/Pearl of Great Price that my wife leaves in our car. While passing some time, I popped it open and read a passage that reminded me how important is to write my thoughts and feelings prompted by the spirit.

Eventually, I will set out to read the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelations. Until then, I'll keep up with the flip open and read method.

Photo credit: honoluluadvertiser.com

No comments: