These are my notes on the article Daddy, Donna, and Nephi from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland in the September 1976 Ensign:
we should dig deep into books we read. it shouldn’t be easy to just skim it as fast as we can. we should think about it. especially with the BofM, god’s book, organized in the perfect way for everyone.
if we dig into what exactly it meant,s we can understand it better. and it shows the lord that we care. if the lord knows we care then he will give us revalation. and the more knowledge we gain in this life, the more of an advantage we will have in the next.
the BofM is organized the way it is because God knows everything that will ever happen so he knows what needs to be where so everybody gets the right insights that they need at the right time. some of the ordering is for practicality, but some of it is because the author felt inspired to put it there.
How to dig deep?
– pay attention
– “actively involved”: thinking about what you read, noting it down, not just reading and thinking “ok whatever”
– “ponder”: examine what you read, adding weight to it. adding weight = finding other references, learning more about meanings
– spend time, don’t go fast
– pray about what you read for inspiration
– honest meditation. meditation suggests a calm enviroment. be somewhere calm, somewhere without distractions, somewhere where you can connect with god and feel the spirit and get inspiration.
– be alert and pay attention, so you can notice things that you might not have noticed before. everything in the BofM is there for a reason. if we speed through things, we will either miss the reason or miss the thing.
– ask questions about anything and everything. why is this here? why did they do that? why didn’t they do this? why is this important? and then find answers to your questions. asking questions and finding answers will link together the whole BofM, and all the scriptures.
– write down what you think about. if you don’t write down your inspiration then you will loose it, and you won’t be able to refer back to it later.
– understand what you read, what it says, what it means, why it’s there
– stay focused. don’t get distracted by other things.
– idea: listen and not just read. or read it out loud. listening to things, in my experience, helps me to pay more attention because the audio reads every single word. if you just read you may (unintentionally) skim over parts. however listening to it also could make it easier to get distracted because you don’t need to think about reading. so if you listen you need to pay extra close attention to what it says. reading along could help you pay attention.
– each re-reading you remember more and more of the book as a whole so you can reference other things and understand it even better
– study with others, so you can share insights and learn together.
– integrate what you learn into your life. if you learn that everyone is a child of god, think about that whenever you see someone? how would you treat them? if you learn that prayer is essential for revalation, remember that whenever you’re looking for knowledge.
– share what you learn with other people so they can know it too
– “Look!” don’t just mindlessly read. look for meanings. look for revelation. look for questions. look for answers. if you don’t look for something, you’ll never find it. and if you look, god will help you understand.