I am a super practical person— not really sentimental.

I prefer taking notes by hand, so I’d get a new notebook each semester and fill it up with notes from all my general, music, education, or religion classes.

So now I was left with 8 giant worn-down notebooks, filled with pages and pages of handwritten notes from dozens of classes.

What was I going to do with them?

I don’t have MUCH sentimentality, but I still had a hard time thinking about just throwing these notebooks away.

But, my practicality kicked in: despite the great information I gained in my education classes, would I ever actually go back to my handwritten notes to find information?

No. I would honestly just google it, or ask another colleague.

As I piled them into a garbage bag that immediately started to rip under the weight, my mind went to one thing I might miss:

Notes from my religion classes.

Because I had FANTASTIC religion professors, and the insights they had shared into the scriptures couldn’t just be searched or duplicated by others.

One of my biggest regrets to this day is that I didn’t reach in and tear out the notes from my religion classes about the Book of Mormon, the temple, prophets, New Testament…

I threw them all away.

When Esau was asked to sell his birthright, he responded:

“Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?” (Genesis 25:32)

He was caught up in the practicality of the birthright— I mean, what good would it be if he was dead?!

Are we caught up in the practicality of our blessings and our gifts and our knowledge that we willingly give them up?

It’s not practical to get to church at that time. Not practical to attend the temple. Not practical to minister to those people. Not practical to read scriptures.

But the real blessings come from what we are sometimes willing to give up in order to keep what we have.

To be hungry just a little bit longer, so that we aren’t tempted to give up great blessings in the future for some temporary comfort.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Practical birthrights first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

The kids were both in the stroller, and I was catching up on finally responding to some emails, texts, and DMs on my phone as I pushed.

It was nice.

And then my daughter wanted to get out of the stroller.

I stopped and she started walking right next to me.

All of a sudden, she wanted to talk about everything.

Every flower she saw. Every number on every house. Every dog or decoration.

I still had my phone in my hand, but I was no longer able to be “productive” on the walk.

So I put my phone away.

She didn’t want to just go on a walk.

She wanted to walk with her mom.

And that meant communication and connection.

It was a fun little walk before she got tired and wanted to get back in the stroller.

I’ve been trying to think about what it means to really walk with the Lord.

And I think my daughter showed me the perfect example.

We need to be doing the things that He is doing.

We need to be talking with Him. Communicating in prayers, both formal and informal.

We need to be finding connection with the Lord. Asking questions, making observations, learning.

“The Lord, before whom I walk, will send his angel with thee, and prosper thy way”. (Genesis 24:40)

So when we make the effort to walk with God, He not only walks with us…

He then also sends angels to accompany us on our walk.

Angels to guide, comfort, communicate, prosper our way.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Walk With the Lord first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Women who are named and who do things and work to draw closer to the Lord.

The Old Testament is a unique book of scriptures because we do actually get quite a few beautiful, powerful examples of righteous women.

And side note: If you want to dive into this topic even more, listen the interview we did with Amy Fisher called “Women in the Old Testament”. It was episode 614 of the One Minute Scripture Study podcast.

I have loved studying Rebekah this week.

She gives me so many attributes to look up to, and one that I want to mention is found in Genesis 25:22.

Rebekah was finally pregnant, after years of dealing with infertility.

But she was pregnant with twins, and she could feel the struggle of these two babies within her womb as she carried them.

And so what did she do?

“She went to inquire of the Lord”. (Genesis 25:22)

I love this powerful yet simple reminder from Rebekah that when we have questions, we can take them straight to the Lord.

And I especially relate to her as a very pregnant woman myself right now, who has questions about the future.

We can ask, and then we can receive answers.

Have you inquired of the Lord recently?

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Inquisitive Rebekah first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I used to picture the Abrahamic covenant as some promise God made with Abraham a long long time ago.

And that’s it.

I know I’ve been told to study it and learn about it, but in my mind it was only to learn about history.

Here’s the cool realization I made, though!

Abraham’s covenant is not about him.

Yes, he’s the one being blessed, but what is the blessing all about?

Let’s see what we learn in Genesis 26:3-4, which is where the Abrahamic covenant is being extended now to his son, Isaac:

“I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries… And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.”

This blessing is about YOU! It is about ME!

We are the ones being blessed, across countries, and without number.

When we live a righteous and faith-filled life, we are being part of this covenant and we are being blessed.

And then we, in turn, become the ones who reach out and bless other people’s lives as we emulate Christ and share what we know.

This isn’t just a history lesson; we are the ones fulfilling the covenant!

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post We are the blessing first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

As we worked through “what came next” on a series of different patterns, I noticed how many of the kids worked very differently.

Some of the kids would try and figure out the color patterns on their own.

(Sometimes they were right; other times they were very wrong.)

And other kids wanted to wait and see what the answer was before they colored in their pattern.

(“Wait, what’s the answer? What color should I use?”)

These two approaches are pretty universal, right?

Sometimes we have questions and problems, and we do our best to find a solution.

Other times, we have questions and problems, and we wait for the answer to come to us before we move forward.

As an educator, I’m very familiar with where the most learning happens:

When we do our best to do the work and find an answer, whether it is right or wrong, we learn infinitely more than when we just wait to be told the right answer.

Abraham’s servant is such a perfect and sweet example of this.

Tasked with finding a wife for Isaac, the servant came up with a plan and presented it to the Lord.

“And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.” (Genesis 24:14)

The servant came up with a possible solution!

And the Lord agreed with the plan!

Now, he could have been totally “wrong”, which would have then made it pretty easy for the Lord to tell him how he would actually give the sign of the right wife.

But either way, this servant chose to at least come up with the plan, which is where the most learning and growth happens.

It’s so tempting to want to sit around, waiting to be inspired or told to do the right things.

Who should I serve? How should I simplify my life? What can I do to teach my family the gospel?

It takes a lot of faith, and setting aside “perfectionism”, to take fully formed ideas to the Lord and see what you’ll be taught.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Patterns and preschool first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.