A few months ago, the woman teaching Relief Society made a comment like this, “We make to-do lists, but why not to-be lists?”
Although the comment made a strong impression on me, I didn’t really do much about it at the time.
Meanwhile, over the past two weeks or so, I’ve had the awesome opportunity to attend a lot of different church meetings that have inspired me as to what new directions I need to take in life. Ever since I got home from being a full-time missionary over a year and a half ago, I have struggled to find a method of studying the scriptures that was inspiring enough to me that I could stick with it. Sadly, what too often happened was that my scripture study did not get done at all, or if it did, it generally held little inspiration.
Until last week.
I finally hit on an idea that I thought I could really stick with.
On my mission, I was reading in Romans 12 and marveling that the entire chapter was basically a how-to guide as to how to “live as becometh saints.” What I decided to do was to start breaking down the chapter into small chunks (just one or two verses at a time) and ask myself how I could apply those verses to my life. For this first week, I focused on Romans 12: 1-2, which say:
“…Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
After deciding to start my focus on these two verses, I came up with five questions that would guide my scripture study throughout the following week. The five questions were:
1. What does it mean to present my body as a living sacrifice? How can I apply that?
2. What are the signs of being ‘conformed to this world?’
3. What can I change to not be conformed to this world?
4. What are some actions that I need to take to renew my mind and transform myself?
5. How do I prove the will of God?
Each day, I have tackled a new question, and recorded the scriptures I’ve found and the insights I’ve had in my study journal.
Guys, I’m here to tell you—I have noticed a HUGE difference.
So, first off, on my To-Be List:
*Be a nonconformist (with the world)
*Be a thought transformer
I would love it more than I could say if any of you wanted to join me on this challenge. I would love to hear any of your insights!
Happy Becoming!
