Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Primarily Scripture. I'm your host, Cindy Young, and today we are talking about one of the simplest, yet most amazing habits you can bring to your scripture study. Now, we've all been there. You open up your scriptures, you read a chapter, you close the book, and five minutes later you can't remember a single thing that you just read. It feels like you're in school reading this boring story about people who lived thousands of years ago, and it doesn't have any impact on your life at all, other than being able to say,"Yes, I read my scriptures today." And that's a problem, isn't it? Well, what if the problem isn't with what you're reading? What if the problem is the way that we are interacting with the story? Today, we're talking about how to shift from just reading the scriptures to actively questioning. And I know people get a little bit uncomfortable sometimes when we say that we're going to question the scriptures, but stick with me because you're really gonna love this. Specifically, we're talking about asking personalized questions that will help you to bridge the gap between this ancient history that's in the scriptures and your personal, modern, everyday messy life. When you stop asking just, "Well, what happened back then?" And you start asking, "What does this mean for me right now?" then the scripture stories can come alive for you. So let's try it out with one of my all-time favorite stories from the Old Testament. It is this week's reading for Come, Follow Me, the story of Esther. Now, even if you're reading the story of Esther just to see what happened and learn the story, it's a pretty exciting story. Queen Esther finds out from Mordecai that there's been this decree, and all of the Jewish people are going to be destroyed. Mordecai asks Esther to risk her life by going and talking to the king. The catch is this, that if anybody tries to talk to the king without specifically being invited, the king is allowed to have them killed. Just a minor little problem there. There is a lot at risk here for Esther. It is such an amazing story. But if we leave it only as Esther's story, what happened for Esther, then we miss out on the most important part. Let's turn to this week's worksheet. It's available for download free on my website, primarilyscripture.com, and it's just one page this week, but the activity we're doing here is super, super important. Every time you read your scriptures, I hope that you have a pencil nearby, and that you're marking your scriptures and taking notes, and we've talked about the importance of this in several episodes a couple months ago. So check those episodes out if you missed it. But instead of just marking one or two things, or writing a quick summary of the plot in your journal, I want you to also, also write questions. And you can do this in your journal, or directly in the margins of your scriptures, or even just in your head. I always recommend that you actually write them down, but any amount of time spent asking questions will help you to level up your scripture study. And the kinds of questions that we're talking about this week are something that I call mirror questions. I want you to stop looking at people in the scriptures as just random people who lived a long time ago, and start looking at them and their stories as a mirror. Try it with Esther, and I'll show you what I mean. In Esther chapter four, she is dealing with this huge problem. All of her people are going to be killed. Instead of just moving on to the next part of the story, what happens next, we can mirror this back to ourselves with questions. What does a mirror do? You look at yourself, right? So we want to personalize the scripture so that it is looking back at our own lives. We're going to do this by using the words I, me, or my. So look at what's going on with Esther. She has this huge problem, and now mirror it back, and let's think about our own lives, and we'll write a question that's about yourself. What I wrote in the margin here was, "What kind of big trials do I face right now?" Do you see how that's a mirror? Esther has a problem. What kind of problem do I have? Suddenly, we're not just reading about Esther in a big palace with this big problem that has no effect on my life. Now I have it mirrored back, and now I can literally think about my own life and my own struggles. And we can use this mirror technique with almost every part of her story and every story that you read. Let's think about the messenger who carried the words back and forth between Mordecai and Esther, because they weren't together in the same room. Esther was the queen in the palace, and Mordecai was outside the gates. So they had this messenger helping them to talk. If you just read the story, it's pretty easy to ignore this messenger guy. Who is he? He's just delivering the messages. But let's mirror it back. He brought messages to Esther, and so the mirror side of that is what? What question could help us identify the mirror side? What I wrote was, "Who are the messengers and helpers that God has placed in my life right now?" Sometimes we need a little bit of help to get the messages that are most important for us. You see how we're doing this? We're taking the general idea of Esther's story, and we're using it to think about the specifics of our own circumstances. Now, Esther thinks about the consequences of standing up for what is right, and so you too can think about what could happen in your own life when you stand up for what's right. For Esther, she's remembering that the king can kill anybody who comes in without an invitation. Now, I don't expect you to die because you walked into the wrong room at the wrong time, but could you possibly lose a friend? Or maybe lose out on a job opportunity because you weren't willing to compromise your standards? Sometimes the potential consequences of choosing the right are uncomfortable, and that is just a fact of life, and it's something that Esther's story teaches us. But then Mordecai reminds Esther, and hopefully reminds us, right, if we mirror it back to ourselves, then we're reminded here that there are also consequences for not standing up for yourself and for your beliefs. So for Esther, If she didn't do this, then her entire family and her whole nation could perish. Now, I'm pretty certain that my family isn't going to physically stop being alive if I don't choose the right, but there are always spiritual consequences for our choices, and we have to decide if that is something that we are willing to live with And then really, I love this next line in the story, and I bet you do too. We all know the famous phrase that Mordecai says to Esther here, "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" It's actually the title of the Come Follow Me lesson this week because this is such a famous and important line. What if this is what you are here for? What if this is what you are meant to do? And it's so easy to read that line and think, "Wow, that's so cool for Esther that there was this plan in her life." It's a little bit harder, but also at the same time much more rewarding to mirror it back onto yourself. What specific circumstances and people have been uniquely placed in your life right now, and how can you be a good influence to them? You might not be a queen saving a whole nation, but you might be a family member or a neighbor or a friend who's been placed in a very specific place for such a time as this. When we ask these mirror questions, it can shift our mindset from just reading a story to learning from the scriptures, and this is hugely, hugely important because what happened for Esther is only relevant if we learn from it- if it has an impact on your life. Without that impact, it's just another story. Does that make sense? If you don't learn, then it's just another story, and who cares what it's about? But with the personal application, now the story means something. Now it can change your life, not because of the words on the page, but because of the lessons that are in your heart. So I want to challenge you, don't try to change your entire scripture study routine today or tomorrow or this week even. Just do it a little bit at a time, one chapter, one story, one or two questions. As you read, write down one or two personalized questions in your margins or in your study journal, and use the words I, Me, or My so that it's a mirror question. Give the scriptures a chance to speak directly to your life. You will find the answers that you get during your study aren't just historical facts. You're not just learning about Esther. You can receive personal revelation. Thank you so much for tuning in for this week's tip. If this episode has helped you, please share it with a friend who might appreciate quick and easy scripture study tips. And remember, your gospel studies should always include primarily scripture. I'm Cindy Young. 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