It’s been a week already?! Wow, time is flying. September is well on its way and here I am for another Friday post.

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about spiritual growth. How can we tell we (or someone we love) are growing spiritually? And if we want to grow more, what does that look like? In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we just went through an adjustment to our meeting schedule. We have 1 hour where the entire congregation meets together, and then instead of 1 meeting that alternates every other week (either Sunday School with all adults together, or split into classes for men and classes for women), we have 2 meetings so that each week we meet for Sunday School for 25 minutes and then in our classes for another 25 minutes. The meetings go quick and we are out of there before we know it.

With less time for any particular lesson or topic, I’ve been thinking a lot about conversion-(that state where our heart is progressively becoming more like Jesus Christ and turning toward Him). How can I use this meeting schedule change to deepen my conversion to Jesus Christ?

Our Sunday School President (shout-out to Sister Loftis!) prepared a beautiful bookmark recently helps us use the time during the week to do work on our conversion to Jesus Christ and prepare ourselves for our next set of instruction/discussions on Sunday. She wrote this:

Prepare your heart before Sunday

As you study this week’s Come, Follow Me, ask Heavenly Father to help you recognize something that will bless someone else.

What touched my heart? -an ah-ha!” moment, -a verse that stood out, -something I hadn’t noticed before

What is the Spirit teaching me? -a gospel principle I need to strengthen, -an invitation to change, -a prompting I received

What am I still pondering? -a scripture I don’t fully understand, -a question I’d love to discuss, -a connection I’m still exploring

What will I do? -one way I’ll follow the Savior this week, -one truth I’ll apply in my life, -one person I can bless

This week the Savior is inviting me to….

I found this set of thoughts SO helpful, and I’ve found myself pondering how similar our personal study is to practicing the piano. I’m a piano teacher, and if the student isn’t practicing between lessons (or only one or two days), we can do very little at the lesson to progress further. Lessons become a time to oversee the practice that should have been happening before getting here! Over time that gets really boring, and the student loses interest in learning the instrument. The minimal growth takes all the fun out of it. However, if the student is practicing most days during the week, by the time the lesson rolls around, they are ready to share what they’ve learned, and they’re ready to take another step. As their teacher I can help them do that.

Spiritual growth can happen much the same way. As we spend time during the week not just reading scripture but studying, asking questions, discerning truth, noticing things we hadn’t seen last time….and then go to church ready to share what we’ve learned with others and take another step forward spiritually, our Sunday experience is that much richer and all of our studies and meetings are directly impacting this upward spiral of conversion to Jesus Christ. Studying spiritual material won’t always feel amazing or enlightening- practicing the piano is like that too. Some of it feels rather routine and monotonous. That’s how it is being human! If overall our efforts are allowing us to come away feeling something, with our hearts or minds munching on something and our desires are taking us toward connection, balance and consecration, we are growing. That light inside us is growing brighter.

I can see more clearly how to be more committed, more diligent in my efforts to study, learn, grow, and share and come closer to Jesus Christ. I’m excited about the spiritual momentum I’m feeling and the opportunity to continue to share my feelings with my family, my church family, and now you!

Love,

Laura