The Importance of Reading Your Scriptures

I was asked to speak at Young Women's Camp that was held for our stake a few weeks ago on the topic of the importance of reading your scriptures.  As a seminary teacher, I was thrilled to be given a topic that I know a lot about.  While pondering about what I might say, I remembered being a young woman their age.  Do you remember being that age?  I recall having lots of questions that always came to my mind.  The who, what, where, when, and why type of questions.  I thought, hum, that might make for a fun lesson and it clicked!  Make a board to help answer their questions about the importance of scripture study. 

While researching, I found many wonderful articles on lds.org that cover this topic.  I fell in love with a talk given by Sister Tanner at a BYU Devotional about the importance of scripture study.  Some of the thoughts on the board I created came from her talk.  I also pulled from other General Authorities which you will see below with the quotes that I have taken from their talks.

Let's walk through the different questions and how I shared this with the YW.  First, we were outside so the board came in handy to help keep all of my thoughts in one place.  I enlarged the clip art below by using a projector and added a few embellishments to make it look cute.  I started by sharing my scriptures that were given to me by my parents when I was old enough to begin seminary.  They are used and have a few markings inside.  Then, I compared them to the scriptures I use today which are more like a seminary teacher workbook.  Completely read from cover to cover with lots and lots of notes and highlights.  I pointed out to them that I had to make the personal decision as to how important my scriptures were going to be to me personally.  No one else could make the decision for me and no one can make that decision from them.  They would have to do that.  I shared the scripture from Psalm 19:10 which talks about scriptures being more desired than gold and honey.  The scripture is below and goes on the board above the YW.  This lead into me offering the YW a Teddy Gram for a snack.  I asked them to place a little bit of honey on it and to eat it while I played the song "If I Were a Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof.  This is a song that Sister Tanner mentions in her talk.  I love musicals too so this was a perfect fit.  As it played the girls ate their bears and I asked them to listen carefully to the lyrics of the song.  I never realized that the song mentioned learning from Holy Books and studying for hours upon hours a day. To study Holy Books is regarded by Orthodox Jews as a sweet blessing and a great privilege.  In fact, in some Jewish traditions, when child was to start his/her education in the Torah, a taste of honey was given to the student so that he/she would associate the study of the holy book with sweetness.  This was intended to reinforce what it says in Psalms:  "How sweet are the words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalms 119:103).  I asked the YW are the scriptures delicious to you?  Do you want to feast upon them?  This lead into sharing the WHO - Who should read their scriptures?  Well, that's easy -   All of us!  I didn't want this to be a Primary answer so I went searching and found in the handbook of instructions for the Church that it talks about the WHO under the section based on Education.  We should be reading our scriptures to gain knowledge just as we read from books we learn from at school.  Then, came the question WHAT - What do we get from reading our scriptures?  You can see the list that was shared below.  Next, I asked them WHERE can you read your scriptures.  I used this section to have them interact with one another.  Each young lady was asked to write down one or two places that they enjoy reading their scriptures personally.  When they were finished, they were to share their answers with the young woman sitting next to them.  Together, they were to share with the rest of the group their favorite answer.  We went around to each group and wrote their answers with Dry Erase Marker on a blank laminated card up on the board.  There were some fantastic answers given.  Everything from their bedroom to school to at the park to in the car.  Moving on, we went to the next question WHEN.  When you read your scriptures, what happens?  I found a really cute poem from the Friend magazine that was shared with the group.  I love it!  Hope you will too!  WHY - Why is it important to read your scriptures?  As we discussed the WHY we placed each of the cards on the board.  I left a few blank cards too so that others could share their thoughts about this question.  I love the next and final question HOW - How do should you read your scriptures?  I think they know the answer to HOW, but it was a great reminder to remember to ponder, pray, search, read and apply.  At the end of sharing this lesson, I hope that all of you would remember to share your personal testimony of the importance of reading your scriptures with the group you share this message with.  I know personally the love I have for my Savior and the blessing that the scriptures have been to me.

Sincerely,

Jennifer

Young Women Personal Progress Award - Post Office Theme

Yet another Young Woman receiving her Personal Progress Award.  Isn't this awesome?

Stacy went with a Post Office Theme for this Young Woman's Award.  As you can see....she made a few trips to the local post office collecting boxes.  Unfortunately for me...she forgot her camera the night of the presentation but managed to get a few pictures that I can share with all of you.  For decorations they had boxes with bubble wrap coming out of them placed around the room.  There was a mailbox at the door on the way in so that individuals could leave her a special message inside congratulating her for a job well done.  As the award was presented boxes were given with messages inside.  You can only imagine how much fun it must have been receiving actual mail vs. a text message.  Ha! Ha! 

Congratulations to another job well done!

Young Women Personal Progress Award - Welcome Back To School

My sister Stacy's Ward has been busy again earning their Personal Progress Awards.  They decided to highlight this Young Woman's accomplishments by having a Welcome Back to School Night.  The decorations were school themed with refreshments that no one could resist.  Some yummy cupcakes!  They put together the evening program on lined paper and had each of the Young Women write a special message to the recipient that they placed in a paper bag.  They also had the members in the Ward write special messages to her in a Composition Notebook that was presented to her that evening.

Way to go Young Women!!!

Young Women Personal Progress Award - Music Theme

My sister Stacy's ward has been super busy with their Personal Progress.  Yet another Young Woman has just earned her Personal Progress Award.  Stacy has a really neat way to recognize the Young Women for this outstanding achievement.  They pick a theme that fits the personality of that particular Young Woman and build a special night around it in recognizing her for all of her hard work.  This Young Woman is a musician and was recognized in this way..........

Message Shared by Stacy - -

Here are some pictures from another Young Womanhood Recognition Night. For this young woman I chose the theme "Music" since she loves to sing. Once again we had presenters for each of the values. Our presidency does this for each young woman so they will have little reminders for each of the young woman values. I had the value Individual Worth. I gave her a record that I bought from Good Will. I talked about how the record was a little bit scratched and reminded her that Heavenly Father loves us even if we feel like a scratched record. I also had ward members write her uplifting notes and I told her that she can read them anytime she is feeling like she isn't important. I slid them in the record case with the record. All the other speakers gave her a small gift that went along with the value and the music theme. It was a very fun night.

Enjoy!

Young Women's - Summer Personal Progress Reminder

Have you had a chance to think about how you might remind your Young Women about working on their Personal Progress over the summer?  If you are like my sister, Stacy, you probably have.  If you are like me at the moment running around with so much to do you don't know where to begin you maybe haven't.  Stacy sent me this picture of a cute little handout she made to remind the Young Women that summer is a great time to focus on Personal Progress.  Just think...if all of our Young Women were to work on Personal Progress vs. telling us how bored they are all summer long we'd have a ton of girls really reaching out to their families and to those throughout their communities.  How fantastic would that be?  Plus...they would be that much closer to the Savior. 

Feel free to share your ideas of how you may be planning to share this same message with your Young Women by commenting below.

Young Women Personal Progress Award - It's O-Fish-Al!

My sister, Stacy, had another Young Woman in her Ward earn her Personal Progress Award. Below...she shares what the Young Women and Leaders did for her.



We recently had another one of our Young Women complete her Personal Progress. This past Sunday, we presented her with her Young Womanhood Recognition award. To make the night special for her, another young woman (who worked on this as one of her 10 hour projects) in our ward along with several leaders, planned a fun filled evening for her.


The theme for the night was Under The Sea. For decorations, we used different shades of blue streamers to make it look like water and hung fish from the ceiling. The chalk board was covered with a fish net and had fish cut outs on it. For the food, she made cupcakes and decorated them with Swedish fish.


We had several leaders, her sister and a friend present her with a decorated fish net to go along each of the YW values. At the end of the night she got to take home all the fish nets as a reminder of the YW values she had been working on.


Some of the items in the fish nets were:

Faith - A decorated empty box
Divine Nature - A statue of the Temple
Individual Worth - An ultra-sound picture (from her sister)
Knowledge - A book
Choice and Accountability - A coin to remind her that we don't just flip a coin to make choices in this life
Good Works - A picture of the Rainbow fish and some tin foil scales with good works written on them. The book is about a fish, who in the end gives his scales to the other fish and it makes him feel good
Integrity - An anchor
Virtue - Some jewelry - Related the jewelry to rubies


It was a really nice night. She had lots of members in the Ward come to support her.

Personal Progress Award Program

My sister, Stacy, is the Young Women's President in their ward up in Spokane, Washington. She shared with me how she is encouraging each of her Young Women to earn their Personal Progress Award. She recently had a Young Woman that did just that. Stacy wanted there to be something special that could be shared with this young lady so that she would know how proud everyone was of her accomplishment. She came up with the idea of doing the presentation of this award in very special and unique way. She based everything that evening on a POCKET THEME. She had each of the Young Women in their ward place an item in the pocket that represented the young lady being recognized. She also had some of the leaders and the Bishop participate. When they went to present the Young Women Personal Progress Award to this young woman they each got to share something special that they had placed in the pocket for her based on the value they were representing. I understand this was such a hit that all of the girls are pumped up and excited to see what might happen on the night they receive their award. Stacy made some cute posters for the wall and a really neat table center piece. Each Young Woman walked away with a Pocket Poem and a cookie in a Pocket Pouch. Check it out!!! I just love this idea!!!

PS...if Stacy reads this maybe she can add more about this great activity.