Cindy: 0:06

Hi friends, and welcome back to Primarily Scripture. I'm your host, Cindy Young. This is a Come Follow Me Scripture Study Podcast, especially geared towards people who are wanting to study on their own, but need a little bit more direction and guidance. They're not sure where to start. So that could be kids, teenagers, new converts, even just an adult who wants a little bit of support. I want to show you how easy it is to study your scriptures. Today's guest is my good friend Quin. We actually met when she was serving her mission here in my area. How are you today, Quin?

Quin: 0:41

I'm super good. How are you, Cindy?

Cindy: 0:43

I am so good. Thank you for being with me.

Quin: 0:46

Of course, I'm happy to be here.

Cindy: 0:48

So tell me, what did your scripture study look like before you went on your mission?

Quin: 0:53

Before my mission, my scripture study was the bare minimum, if non existent, if I'm being completely honest.

Cindy: 1:02

I feel like that's how a lot of people are.

Quin: 1:05

Yeah.

Cindy: 1:06

We go to church and we're told like, you need to be studying every day and then we all feel so bad because none of us is studying absolutely every single day. And if you are, there was a time when you weren't. So, I'm not saying that you're perfect at scripture study now, but what's the difference now and how did you make that change?

Quin: 1:24

I think the way I changed is I found how truly exciting the scriptures were. I mean, whenever I would study my scriptures, I would do it because I was told to and because I knew I needed to. But on my mission, I discovered the true joy and the excitement that comes from reading the scriptures. And so now I look forward to it. I'm not amazing at it. I'm still trying to figure it out with my schedule with, you know, school and everything. I'm a, I'm a busy person. We're all super busy. But trying to put in the effort to find the time really makes a difference. And the Lord sees that for sure.

Cindy: 2:00

Definitely. I find that myself that scripture study falls through the cracks so fast. But when I prioritize it and I'm like, okay, hold on, how am I going to fit this into my day? And just a little bit of effort. It's so much better. And like you said, it's so exciting. Once you actually get in there, you're like, I found something. I felt something. Oh, I never saw this before. And I just get so excited. And then my kids look at me and they're like, Mom, you're crazy. And I'm like, no, you just don't get it.

Quin: 2:28

No, for sure. Me and my companion during our personal study used to turn to each other and be like, wait, you have to share this thing I found. And then she would do the same. And then we'd go like five to 10 minutes and then the same thing again. So yes, I totally get it.

Cindy: 2:42

Awesome. Okay. So every week I create worksheets to help you study. They're available on the website, totally free, no strings attached. You don't even have to give me your email address. Go to PrimarilyScripture.com and you can download those. And this week we're going to be in Doctrine and Covenants sections. 12 through 17, and then a little bit in Joseph Smith history as well. And it covers the time when Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery received the Aaronic Priesthood. How exciting would it have been to be there with them when they thought, this is talking about authority, we need to pray about authority and baptism, and they do, and an angel appears, like, That's amazing! One of my favorite, favorite parts is in the Joseph Smith history. Verses 68 through 71, Joseph Smith tells about that time of going and receiving the priesthood, and he just lays it all out about what happened. And then there's an asterisk, and if you look down at the bottom of the page, it gives Oliver Cowdery's description of this event, one of my very favorite parts, he says,"What joy! What wonder! What amazement! While the world was wracked and distracted," - the world is just in this horrible state- "our eyes beheld, our ears heard, Then his voice, though mild, pierced to the center, And his words, I am thy fellow servant, dispelled every fear. Like, that's amazing! So cool! Him talking about how it felt to hear John the Baptist say, we're fellow servants in this work. And that's the name of the lesson this week, "Upon You, My Fellow Servants," because that's what John the Baptist said. And so, what do you think the phrase means?"Upon you my fellow servants." What are fellow servants?

Quin: 4:37

I think that is a very inclusive word. He views each and every one of us as his fellow servants, and includes us personally as someone that he can depend on, rely on, and give tasks that mean a great deal to him, and I think that It's such, it's kind of a scary thing to think that we're being given God's work, but also knowing that we're being given*God's work.* And so he's not just going to be like, here you go and like, leave you alone. He's going to give it to you and then be like, I'm going to give you every single thing to be able to help you do what I need you to do.

Cindy: 5:14

Yes. It's not, here's your work. It's us together. We get to be partners in it. Awesome. Okay, so if we look on the very first page of the worksheets, there's an

activity that says, "ask: 5:24

what should I do?" And this is a really important study tool that I hope everybody learns to do when they study the scriptures. Will you read those instructions to us, Quin?

Quin: 5:36

Of course. Ask what should I do? What principles in Christlike actions can you find that could help you do the Lord's work? Hint. Check every verse. We aren't expected to be perfect at them all, but there's always room for improvement. As you look at this list, listen with your heart for messages from the Spirit. When something stands out, pause to ponder and write down the thoughts that come to you. What does the Lord want you to work on?

Cindy: 6:05

Awesome. This is just super open to however the spirit is going to speak to you. Check every verse for something that you can do. Let's dive into the scriptures. and see what we can find in these verses. The worksheet starts on verse four. Why don't we go back and forth? If you read verse four and tell me what you can see that we can do, and then I'll do five and we'll just go from there.

Quin: 6:30

Let's do it.

Cindy: 6:30

Awesome.

Quin: 6:32

"Yea, whosoever will thrust in his sickle and reap, the same is called God." So we need to put in effort and go out and search.

Cindy: 6:41

Yeah, definitely."Therefore, if you will ask of me, you shall receive. If you will not, it shall be opened unto you." So not only do we have to put in the effort like you read, we also have to pray about it and ask the Lord to help us. But I love the promise here, and I'm even going to highlight it. I love that he says, you shall receive. He doesn't say you might receive, It says you shall receive. Now, of course, there's no, like, timeline attached to that. We can't expect the answer to come right this minute, but we can trust because he's a God who keeps his promises.

Quin: 7:18

I think this exact verse is found all throughout the scriptures. This is a promise that God gives us everywhere, and we can see it all throughout time. That when we ask God questions, He's going to give us an answer. And I love how you pointed out that it's not, Oh, I'm going to give you an answer today, or I'm going to give you an answer, you know, next week or next month. It's, I'm going to give you an answer. You have to be patient and wait to see how quickly or how long you're going to have to wait. But it's going to come.

Cindy: 7:47

Yeah.

Quin: 7:47

I think that's such a powerful thing that he's given us.

Cindy: 7:50

And often it takes other work too, right? We just studied last week about revelation that if you do nothing else except asking, then answers aren't going to come to you as easily, right? There are other steps sometimes and that's part of the thrusting in your sickle, right? Effort. What else can you do? Where else can you look? Who else can you ask?

Quin: 8:11

Absolutely. Verse six."Now, as you have asked, behold, I stand to you, keep my commandments and seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion." So I noticed kind of two things here. The first one is to keep God's commandments. Obviously, we have those 10 set in stone commandments. That we read about in the bible, but there's also different commandments and things that modern day prophets have instructed us to do and so just to follow god's word I think is a very important thing because that allows the spirit to be part of our life And then that allows us to do the other things we've already talked about. And the next thing is to seek and bring forth and establish the cause of zion Which that's kind of a lot but for me the way I view that is that is to just go about doing the things that God has asked us to do, and to love and serve His children, and hopefully, for those of you know, God's children who are not part of His church or don't know Him, we can help them learn about Him. And I think that's kind of what that verse is saying to us.

Cindy: 9:15

Yeah, and I love that it says, Seek to bring it forth, but it doesn't say, and you have to do it all on your own. Right? That our intention is important. Are we actually trying to help the Lord in His work, or is that one of our goals? But there's no expectation here of any one of us doing it on our own. Joseph Smith couldn't even do it on his own, right!? He did a lot, but he didn't do it on his own.

Quin: 9:40

Exactly. I mean, we think about missionaries. They don't go out just individually by themselves. As missionaries, we go out always in twos, sometimes even threes. So missionaries are never alone. They're go out and doing the work 24 7, but they're never by themselves because God is never just going to put on all these things and just leave us alone. He's always going to have someone there with us.

Cindy: 10:00

Yeah. That's such a beautiful thing. I love that. Okay. So let's go on to verse seven. Behold, I speak unto you and also to all those who have desires to bring forth and establish this work. Now this verse doesn't specifically have. an action, something to do in it. But I love taking verses like this that don't have an action that's really, really obvious and seeing if I could find one hidden in there, right? Like, we hear people talking about finding hidden things in the scriptures. Well, this is how you do it. You have to search and dig in. So, do you have any ideas of action items that might be in verse 7?

Quin: 10:42

Well, my first kind of thought is that God is saying that he's speaking unto us and unto all of us, and there needs to be actions that we need to take in order to be able to hear God. And so that's kind of my first thought is, Making sure that we are in a place to be able to receive revelation, like we talked about last week, and to be able to feel his presence and his spirit.

Cindy: 11:09

Yeah, that's where my mind went, too, is that if he's speaking, I better be doing something to listen, because I guarantee you he has spoken to me before, and I didn't hear it at all, because I was so distracted and busy.

Quin: 11:21

Absolutely. I've had so many experiences where I've gone through things and kind of made decisions and my first thought is like, where was God in all that? Like, He didn't help me out. But then when I sit there and go back and look, I'm like, actually, He did help me out. I just kind of chose to ignore Him.

Cindy: 11:38

Right.

Quin: 11:39

So I think it's super common and all of us do it for sure.

Cindy: 11:42

Definitely. Definitely. All right. Let's go on to verse eight.

Quin: 11:46

Let's do it."And no one can assist in this work, except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope, and charity, being temperate in all things whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care." There's a lot, there's a lot of action words kind of in there.

Cindy: 12:04

So much, so much to

Quin: 12:06

Kind of the first one I want to hit on is to be humble. I think humility, to be humble has a lot of different definitions, but the main thing that I take away from being humble is being willing to change and being willing to accept that we need to change. We're not perfect and sometimes I think I'm speaking for myself here, sometimes I think very highly of myself and I don't think that I need to change in certain aspects.

Cindy: 12:34

Yes, same. Same.

Quin: 12:36

Ha ha ha ha But God often humbles us and he often puts us in situations where we realize oh, maybe I do need to change here!

Cindy: 12:46

Right!

Quin: 12:46

So I think he shows here that this is important We need to be willing to change. Yeah

Cindy: 12:52

Yeah, I think it's very instructive that that's the first thing in this list, right? You can't help in this work unless you are humble, and, and then he gives all these other things, right? Full of love, faith, hope, charity, being temperate, everything else we need to do kind of falls into those. But first, be sure you're humble. So after you have gone through your verses and found a bunch of things to do, like we just did, have you ever felt overwhelmed? Like how are you ever going to live up to all these things that the Lord expects you to do?

Quin: 13:24

Oh my gosh, definitely.

Cindy: 13:26

So much. So what is your solution? How have you approached it then when there's so much to do and you feel inadequate?.

Quin: 13:33

I think the first thing is kind of talking myself through it and saying, Okay, Quin, God's not expecting you to get this all done in one day. He's given you a whole lifetime to do it.

Cindy: 13:47

Yeah.

Quin: 13:48

And accepting that I'm not going to change in one day- maybe some things I can get rid of in a couple hours, you know- but there are some things that are going to take a lifetime to change. And that's okay. That's why God sent us here. And that really helps kind of calm me down so then I can really kind of sit down and think, okay, where do I need to start? You know, what are some really important changes that I need to make at this time?

Cindy: 14:10

I love that. Yes, that pondering. Finding the list of things to do won't be helpful at all if you don't actually then make a plan, right? So, The what should I do? Activity does end by asking, "what does the Lord want you to work on?" It's gonna be different for each of us, right? We found at least 10 things to do in these five verses, and they're all pretty big. So, something might stand out to you and it's going to be totally different than what stands out to me, but that pondering time that you spoke about is going to be the key. That's how you're going to know what is right for you. that is how you get personal messages. And I won't know what he wants to tell me unless I pause and listen.

Quin: 14:54

I love how in the worksheet there's kind of four to five things underlined. It says to look, listen, pause, ponder and write down. I think that right there is kind of our checklist we need to go through when we're trying to figure out an answer to our question or trying to figure out what changes we need to make. If we go through those things, more often than not, we're going to figure it out. And I think that's such a, an all encompassing thing that can really make a difference in our life.

Cindy: 15:26

Yes, absolutely. I have felt that myself, for sure. And it's amazing some of the thoughts that come to me when I am pondering, because it may not even be one of these things that we read about. I've had times where I'm looking, okay, what does the Lord want me to do? And the answer that comes is like, Go clean the kitchen, which I'm not going to find that in the scriptures, but that is the answer that comes. I have kids, so I've learned to deal with it, but it does make me more stressed out and I don't handle things as well, I've noticed when I'm in a mess. And so sometimes the Lord, because He knows me so well, He tells me things like, just go clean the kitchen, you'll feel better, and then you'll be able to focus on other things. And it's so amazing that we get little messages like that. I mean, it doesn't say clean the kitchen anywhere in the scriptures, but that was a message that came to me one day when I was studying and taking that time to ponder.

Quin: 16:24

I love that. I think when I look back on my mission and just all the stories that I've heard from so many people of how God talks to them, it's such a personal way. Sometimes it is through those scriptures. It's a verse that stands out and it's like, wow, that's exactly what I needed to hear. Other times, it's an impression of your head of, I need to go clean my kitchen. You know, or it's somebody says something in a talk or in a conversation that you're like, whoa, how did you know? I think that God is so aware of us, more aware than even we realize He's aware of us.

Cindy: 17:00

Yeah.

Quin: 17:01

And he sends his love through his answers and through the people around us. And so if we keep our eye out for it. we're gonna find him.

Cindy: 17:08

Yes, I agree. Amen. Amen. Quin, this has been so fantastic. Thank you for studying with me today. Maybe we can do it again sometime.

Quin: 17:17

Yes, I would love that. Thank you.

Cindy: 17:19

Awesome. All right, friends, now it is up to you to go and act. You need to go and do, but don't just think about the things that I found. Go look for yourself because then when you're in the scriptures, then you'll be able to be listening for the spirit and the spirit will be able to use your actions. for your good and be able to speak to you directly. I'm Cindy Young. This has been Primarily Scripture. I'll see you next week. Bye guys. Thanks for tuning in to Primarily Scripture with Cindy Young. Don't forget you can subscribe to the newsletter and download free worksheets on the website PrimarilyScripture. com. And if you like the channel, be sure to subscribe, like, share, and leave a review. See you next time!