Musings of a Mormon

Seminary and the Bible

Good Morning! I guess for a lot of you it's actually night . . . Oh, well! It's 7:54 for me!

I just want to tell you about my seminary experiences. For those of you who don't know, seminary is a religious class that you can take before, after, or during school as "release time" and, my, is it a release! Yes, it's for LDS students but I think that anyone can take it. It's really a humbling religious experience. And a fun one!

This year's seminary theme is 1 Samuel 16:7- "But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." This is in the King James version of the Bible. And, yes, Mormons do study and read the Bible, in fact, all of this year's seminary lessons are centered around the Bible. 1 Samuel 16:7 so happens to be a scripture mastery. Scripture masteries are basically really good or meaningful scriptures that we as Latter Day Saints are asked to memorize and apply to our lives. I especially like the scripture mastery above.

How is any religious class fun? You might wonder. Let me tell ya! Seminary is the funnest hour of the school day! To help us understand the faith we need to have in the 10 Commandments, or "the laws", in other words, we had to stand in a corner of the room, lift a bowling ball that was tied to a hook in the cieling, let it go flying and trust in the law that says that any pendulum will not return to the same place twice. Talk about faith! No one got hurt, but a lot of us learned a fantastic lesson. We also have food days when everybody brings their favorite treat and we sit, get to know each other, and watch        sometimes.

The lessons are always amazing, though. The other day we learned about David and Goliath and how David refused to wear Saul's armor because it wasn't his. Basically, the docterine here is that you cannot be somebody else. You can't wear someone else's armor. You have to be your own person with your own armor. It was really good for me because I kind of have a hard time of finding out who I really am. We also talked about how David ran straight at the Philistine giant. He didn't stay put. He didn't run the other way. He ran head on into the pathway where Goliath was standing. We were asked how many of us would run straight at our fears and our "Goliaths" like that. It made me feel like being more courageous, that's for sure.

Seminary is not just some religious class where snot drips out your nose and saliva drizzles out of your mouth. It's a class that gets me away from the worries of the school and into my own little bubble of peace, solitude, and self discovery. I also have an extremely awesome time.

Like I said, please email me if you have any questions about me or my religion! I would love to answer your questions!