How I Study

In this section, I describe the methods I use to study God's words, whether in the Standard Works or in teachings from modern Church leaders. Please note that I merely sketch out many of the following strategies at very high level, and I will continue to develop them over time. Additionally, not every suggestion here must be employed in every situation, nor should the reader feel the need to follow them in strict order. But noting them here helps provide an arsenal of resources from which we can draw. To learn about my inspiration for several of these guidelines, see Learning How to Study (particularly James E. Faulconer's wonderful Scripture Study book).

📄️ General Tips

When studying using any of the specific strategies described below, you may find it helpful to apply the following universal tips.

📄️ Basic Reading

First Pass

🗃️ Deep Reading

8 items

📄️ Expansion

After you have built up your personal knowledge and understanding of a passage, you can expand on that by considering the thoughts and teachings of others. This is intentionally delayed until this point, since much of the value of deep study is in solving the problems yourself, and doing the difficult work. It is our goal to be self-sufficient and built our own knowledge and faith rather than relying solely on the thoughts and interpretations of others. However, we can still gain tremendous value after completing our own study by considering others' ideas, which we may not have considered, particularly from prophets and experts.

📄️ Solidification

The purpose of this phase isn't primarily to expand our knowledge of scripture, but it is to solidify it, or make it firm in our minds and hearts.

📄️ Follow Up

There are many strategies we can use in our study, but we our real people with busy lives. It is impossible to study everything to the same depth. It is prudent then to be able to recognize when you may have learned what you were able from a section at a given time, and choose to follow up at a later date. Remember that scripture study is a lifelong endeavor; we cannot do it all at once. Throughout this whole process, you will have certainly fashioned a number of questions which can still be researched and potentially answered, or there will be phases which you have chosen to skip over. You can make note of what you want to return back to and continue to add to your fountain of knowledge.