Notes about Studying the New Testament with the Come Follow Me Schedule, Halfway Through

At the beginning of the year, I posted some ideas and thoughts about the Come Follow Me curriculum and study.  Now that we are halfway through the year, I thought I'd take some time to write an update to the post and discuss what I've found most helpful in my individual study and our family study.

My Personal Study

I'm so indebted to the many great people who write, study and share their knowledge and insight about the New Testament.  My personal study has been so rich and full thanks to their insights.  I am not an expert in ancient languages, cultures, or symbols so I rely on those who are and who so generously share.

Finding Time to Study

Y'all probably know by now that I have eleven kids.  Eleven little and not-so-little people that rely on me.  While I love this stage of my life, with kids from age 20 down to 20 months, and I find so many things easier than when I was a mom to all littles, I have never had so many balls up in the air.  You've heard of the analogy of the circus plate spinner?  I decided this stage is more like being in charge of a major airport hub.  You've got flights coming and going all day and you've got to figure out how to keep them going, in good repair, and will all their stuff on board.  And be responsible for all lost and stolen items.  And make sure there's enough food.  And deal with all the problems that come up.

So fitting in time to read and write isn't easy.  But I have been so blessed as I've sacrificed other things to do it.  This summer, with all my kids finally sleeping through the night, I'm finally able to wake up earlier than them to study.  We have scriptures as a family at 8, so I've been getting up a bit before 6, studying for an hour and then exercising for an hour.  Three days a week, I run with a friend.  The other days I walk or do weights, usually alone, and listen to podcasts, devotionals, and general conference talks.

It also helps that my number one pastime is reading.  I read everywhere I go.  Before smartphones, I was never far from a book and was usually reading 3 or 4 at once.  Now, I've got a bunch of reading material in my pocket -- the blogs I follow, the gospel library app, my kindle books, and the articles I find on the internet.  I'm still reading a lot, but now I spend more of that time in the scriptures and reading about the scriptures.

My study habits have fallen into a basic pattern by now:

1. I read the scripture block at least two times and mark my thoughts as I read.  I feel strongly that it's important for me to bring myself to the text first before I engage with what other people think of what is written.  While I study, I write down a question mark beside passages I want to study more and try to write down any other questions I have as I go along.  I usually start with the New Testament Study Guide edited by Thomas R. Vallett.  It is excellent, especially for devotional readers because it includes answers to many common questions as well as insights from the JST, the prophetic writings and talks.  All of these are side-by-side with the original KJV and there is plenty of space in the margins for me to write my own thoughts, ideas and questions.  After studying from that book, I go to Thomas Wayment's excellent translation of The New Testament.  It is very thorough and Wayment has a lot of very interesting translation notes about the text's original wording and meaning.  He also includes incredibly extensive cross-references.  I also write my ideas and notes and mark my favorite parts here. 
   
2. I'm always listening to something when I exercise alone or while I'm cleaning the house.  Every week, I listen to the podcasts from the Interpreter Foundation.  Different scholars discuss their ideas and insights.  Sometimes the audio quality isn't the best since some of the scholars call in remotely, but it is always helpful and I find that some of my questions are answered just by listening.  They also have an archive of scriptural roundtable discussions from the New Testament that follows the older Gospel Doctrine schedule.  I went through and downloaded all of them to my phone and have also found them very helpful.  Sometimes, I will also listen to talks that are recommended in the lesson manual or other places online.  
3. My next two "must-reads" every week start with the New Testament Student Manual for Institute (college-age) students.  I have it in print form, but the online resource is available, too.
   
4. My second "must-read" resource is Lynne Hilton Wilson's Come Follow Me commentary that is posted every week on the Come Follow Me: New Testament resource page on Book of Mormon Central.  I have read her very detailed commentary every week and I always learn something new.  I've quoted her often.  (Edited 8/16/19 to add that I have to apologize for my bad editing.  My Grandpa's first and middle names are Lynn Wilson (really and truly!) and so I have been spelling Lynne's name that way without even realizing it until recently.  And it is probably why I failed to realize at first that Lynne is female. My apologies, Lynne!  If it helps, my Grandpa Lynn was truly a nice person so I have great associations with that name.)
5. Along the way in my study, I'm bouncing ideas and questions off of my very smart and insightful running partner.  I love hearing what she's learning and asking her what she thinks of one passage or another.  We have really great gospel discussions three days a week while she patiently runs slow enough for me to keep up.  I also like to talk to my husband when he has time.
6. At this point, I usually am starting to pull a lot of my thoughts into a blog post.  I keep thinking I don't have to be as detailed as I am, but I've felt really strongly about doing this and I love that I am creating a resource of my favorite thoughts, quotes, scholarly articles, and insights for later study or teaching.  Even if no one else benefits, writing down my thoughts and insights makes them mine in a way they aren't when I'm just batting them around in my head or with my friend.  I'm excited to study the New Testament again in four years and see what I can add to what I've learned so far.  It usually takes several hours over a couple of days to finally get a blog post prepared.
7. As I have time, I continue to study.  I try to get through some of the articles linked on Book of Mormon Central's New Testament page.  They are very thorough and they are also link to many of the pictures and videos I post on my blog. 
8. If I have time after that, I go to the BYU studies page or the Interpreter Foundation to find more articles.  I love that there is always more to study than I can find time for!

Family Study

Our family study is similar to what I described at the beginning of the year.  We usually meet around the kitchen table for forty-five minutes each Sunday.  The younger ones get a short message from the lesson and then color nearby while the rest of us dive in.  We ask the older kids (ages 9+) on Sunday to read the entire scripture block for the next week's study.  We have a "Sunday sweets" tradition of dessert on Sunday night so we try to tell the kids that they need to read to get treats that night, though we aren't terribly strict about it.  For most of the year, I've used the divisions from my blog (most of them coming from Wayment's headings) to give assignments to the kids.  They each are asked to present on one or more sections of the text.  After they present, I'll add a few remarks or point out some interesting details they might have missed.

Our daily scripture study as family this year is reading the Book of Mormon.  This summer, we've added a five minute New Testament spotlight.  We usually watch one of the short Bible videos or talk about one section of the reading for that week.  It's been a great way to supplement our Sunday study and I hope we can still fit it in come fall.