30 by 30, #15: Read Articles of Faith by James E. Talmage.

In case you aren't familiar with the 30 by 30 Project, here is the original post, with the big fat list.

I have never been what you might call a religious scholar. Do I read my scriptures? Yes. Do I understand the gospel? Of course. But do I really dig deep and go out of my way to read up on doctrinal topics? Not so much. I have heard people use the excuse, "Well, I don't know much about the gospel because I didn't serve a mission." And I may have used that excuse myself, though perhaps I had never verbally expressed it. But it sounds pretty ridiculous when you are a 60 year old woman claiming to know less than a 20 year old missionary. It turns out you've had 40 extra years to work on this, surely you know something by now. I don't want this to be me. Clark has pointed out that a good way to start would be to read the missionary library. And so, I finally read Articles of Faith.

It took me quite a while to read it. Partly because it is some heavy material, and most definitely requires "ponder time," if you will. And partly because I mostly read it on Sundays. Originally I was going to read an article a week, and be done in 13 weeks, but then I found out that some of the articles are more than one chapter, and some are more than 2 chapters, and then I discovered that some days I couldn't get through a whole chapter, and then Sundays turned into crazy days, yadda yadda yadda. But the point is, I eventually finished it. And I'm glad I did. It was very enlightening and uplifting. It made me think about things, spiritual things, that I had never considered before.

I'm on my way. Maybe I can read the rest of the missionary library in the next 30 years.