"The Living Christ"

A number of years ago, a friend shared about some of her experiences with memorizing the document "The Living Christ".  It was a great conversation and I felt drawn to having a similar experience.  However, memorization was never something I was super great at or enjoyed doing so I talked myself out of it.  It would be too hard, too time consuming, and what would it accomplish,  After all, I felt grounded in my faith of Jesus Christ and despite the experiences of my friend, wasn't sure it was a necessary thing.

Time passed and I heard of others who had also memorized this unique document.  My niece Kristen did as one of her personal progress goals.....but she was young and bright....and she needed to do some goals for personal progress so I went on, tempted again but let the moment pass.

Then the invitation came to moms to join with their daughters in working on Personal Progress and to accomplish that goal with their daughter or shortly afterwards.  Since Jena and I were working closely together on her goals, I decided to take that challenge.  In reviewing the values from my point of view, again the invitation was there to memorize "The Living Christ".  A day or so later, I was talking to my sister, Valerie, who lives in Mesa.  She serves as YW President in her ward so we were talking about Personal Progress.  I told her that I was thinking about memorizing the document. Immediately I felt a confirmation that it was something that I should do.  As we talked, it became stronger so I shared it with my sister and we both decided to begin to work on it.  I indicated that I would plan to complete it in a year, practicing as I walked in the morning like my friend had done many years earlier.  I was concerned about my ability to learn and retain such a long piece of writing. 

And so I began, writing the first sentence on a 3X5 card to carry on my walk...."As we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ two millennia ago"......I decided that I would memorize one paragraph a month and would be done in 13 months...perhaps with luck and a couple of shorter paragraphs, I could do it in a year.  Sept. 1, 2011.

I mentioned my goal to Gary but felt that it would be one of those private things (but of course since I am sharing on my blog, I have changed that intention) that I would not mention to others. I didn't want to seem like I was bragging, I guess, but more importantly what if I could not do it.  I am 55 years old and I have a crazy life some times.  This seems like a huge thing for me and I was afraid to let others know in case I couldn't or didn't complete it.

However, the very next day, I had a visit with my visiting teachers who I love.  We talk about the gospel and it is always such a sweet experience.  One of my visiting teachers has returned to Weber State full time so we were speaking about learning and studying and ways to keep our minds active into our later years.  In passing, Kaye mentioned memorization.  Although I had planned not to tell anyone, I found myself sharing about my goal to memorize this document.  I shared my past experiences and how Valerie and I were both going to do this.  Now that they knew, I felt added determination to persist.  After all, each month they could serve as a checkpoint to see how I was doing.  The studying went on......." we offer our testimony of the reality of His matchless life and the infinite virtue of His great atoning sacrifice."

My morning walks have been filled with these sweet words.  As I partook of the sacrament on Sunday, I reviewed the words to the first paragraph over and over..."None other had had so profound an influence upon all who have lived and will yet live upon the earth."  I was anxious to learn the second paragraph and now I can see that not only will I be able to accomplish this goal but it will probably occur more quickly than I thought.  There will undoubtedly be set backs but the words are amazing and lead me to want to learn more of them.  Alone time in the car, folding clothes, taking a shower, where ever there is a moment of quiet, the words are there along with the images of Christ, who He is and how grateful I am for that great atoning sacrifice. "He is the Great Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Messiah of the New...."

A bonus:  On Wednesday, I spoke to my visiting teacher, Kaye, who shared that she too has decided to memorize this beautiful document.  This past Sunday she read an article in the Ensign (p. 8) about a woman who did and she felt that she too had to achieve this goal.  She is actually way ahead of me (which is fine she assured me since they are more in the retirement/grandparent stage with some more free time than I.  Actually she is just brilliant).  Her goal is to present it at their family Christmas party.  When we saw each other at a Relief Society Meeting last night, we spoke of some of the words and it was fun to share our excitement together.

I decided that sharing these experiences would be a helpful thing.  It will provide me a world-full of motivation to continue when the words begin to jumble in my mind, because I am 55 after all.

May you have an awesome day.  Here is a link so that you can read the whole statement.http://lds.org/library/display/0,4945,90-1-10-1,00.html

Have a great day.