Serious Questions in Seminary

Well, so far I have absolutely loved being Isaiah's seminary teacher in the morning.  The first day of seminary we were talking about the Plan of Salvation.  We spent a lot of time on the pre-mortal life.  We looked at his scrapbook and remembered his baby blessing and the impressions that grandparents and parents had about who he was before he came to to this Earth and who he would be on this Earth.   We read parts of my patriarchal blessing about the promises about the children that I would raise. It was special.  I wouldn't have traded it for the world

This morning’s  lesson was about scripture study. I shared the experience  that Jared teaches about this lesson. Jared recalled an experience from his mission when Elder Carmack came to Puerto Rico to visit. In a conference he asked the missionaries who the best scriptorian was. Much to his chagrin, all of Jared‘s friends nominated him. So Elder Carmack gave him 10 minutes to study Acts chapter 3 verse 19 through 21. Jared said he never studied the Scriptures like that in all of his life. He looked up every footnote and considered every single word. When the 10 minutes were up, Elder Carmack asked Jared to share what he had learned. Jared spoke for about 20 minutes. When she was done other Carmack praised him for his good and thorough study, but continued to teach got even more out of those scriptures for another 20 minutes more. Jared said he had never had a better lesson on how to study the Scriptures than that one. Other Carmack then shared how he had the same experience as a young missionary when Bruce are McKonkie was the visiting general authority. This lesson has had quite an impact on Jared’s students over the years and one even painted a painting as a tribute to the lesson that Jared gave when he then studied the Scriptures with the students and show them how to Mark and get every bit of juice out of them like you were juicing the most delicious orange. 
After sharing this experience of Jared’s and trying to replicate in some small way, I got out my own orange and peeled it for Isaiah and told him that really getting into the Scriptures was like peeling an orange. Then I interrupted myself by asking him to help me find something I was searching for that I lost that morning. He told me there was no way he could help me know how to search for something if I couldn’t even tell him what it was. I thanked him for answering the question the right way and told him that we were command to search the Scriptures but we need to understand what we were searching for. And that is principles. Understanding symbolism, reading footnotes, cross-referencing, looking for repetition, understanding the historical context, understanding the deeper meanings of words—These are all tools that are similar to peeling an orange. The fruit on the inside is the principle and that is what you were truly searching for. so, we do that hard work I’m studying the Scriptures just like we peel and orange, but the purpose of it is to get to the principal so that we can apply that principal to our own lives. We then juiced our own tangible orange and scriptural oranges.  After our lesson it was a whole wheat pancakes, freshly squeezed juuce, and then a rush out the door to get to the gym before  7 AM to get his shooting it. It’s a great life of really simple joys. 

Earlier this week at the beginning of our study of the Doctrine and Covenants Isaiah said that he had a big concern.  I braced myself, remembering that nothing was more important in the prepared lesson than answering his questions.  We had just listened to portions of a conference talk from Elder Ballard about the importance of listening to the prophet, so I assumed his question sprung from something that we were listening to.  So, I was surprised by his question.  This is how he asked it,  "YSA wards?" It was said with some disgust.  I bursted out laughing because it caught me off guard and I found his evident distaste for YSA wards comical.

I explained to him why I was laughing and said to him, "I thought you had a real concern or serious question!"

"It is a serious question! What is the Church doing? Sponsoring a dating program? I don't get it."

Okay, so some days are going to be more spiritual than others.  But, in general, I am shocked by how much additional time I am getting with Isaiah this year.  I love doing seminary with him.  Also, we are making sure to focus on him in the evening in homework club and going over the kids homework together.  In addition, he comes home for lunch in the afternoon because it is an open campus and he has an hour off.  So far, it has been a really special year of being able to really focus on the kids and I wouldn't trade it for anything.