I love learning new things, and so the prospect of walking across campus and sitting down in various classes to learn from people who are experts in these subjects was just fascinating to me. ⁣

Looking at a syllabus to see how we could fill an entire semester with hours of learning about different facets of one subject was exhilarating. ⁣

Call me a nerd, I know. ⁣

And it’s not like I totally loved the act of reading every assigned book and writing every research paper. ⁣

But ultimately, I felt the spirituality that was inherently intertwined with learning. ⁣

Gaining knowledge was spiritual to me. ⁣

The thing that made me sad though were some of my fellow classmates who learned from the same classes that I did and eventually reasoned their way out of their gospel beliefs. ⁣

Gaining knowledge had become a worldly pursuit that pulled them further from God. ⁣

“The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.” (D&C 93:36⁣)

The ultimate glory of God is intelligence. ⁣

Intelligence is vital and it is championed by God. ⁣

And what is intelligence?⁣

It’s not just knowledge. It’s not just getting a good test score. ⁣

Intelligence is light and truth. ⁣

Intelligence is the light of Christ, the presence of the Spirit, at the same time as the acquisition of truth. ⁣

It’s learning under the influence of the Spirit. ⁣

And then it leads to intelligent action that is completely congruent with what we’ve learned. ⁣

We are created to crave learning. ⁣

Maybe it’s math. Maybe it’s music. Maybe it’s recipes. Maybe it’s emotional strategies. Maybe it’s history. Maybe it’s education pedagogy. Maybe it’s public service. Maybe it’s the scriptures. ⁣

When we are truly aligned in our spirituality, when we are inviting the Spirit into our lives with every action and thought, I believe that our curiosity is ignited. ⁣

There is so much knowledge out there. ⁣

And God is looking for righteous, spiritual individuals who are going to learn and then act. ⁣

I want to hear— when YOU are aligned spiritually, what is an area you feel your curiosity is led toward?

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post I love learning  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

My roommate asked this question as we left Relief Society one Sunday when I was in college.

I was embarrassed because I hadn’t felt or noticed the Spirit at all!

In fact, I had kind of zoned out the entire lesson.

Has something like this ever happened to you?

Other people are feeling the Spirit, and you aren’t noticing anything special.

Or maybe you’ve been in the opposite position—

Maybe you felt the Spirit during a talk, but the person sitting next to you didn’t.

Or you sent a talk to someone hoping they’d get the same feeling you did, and there’s nothing.

How can this happen?

Paul teaches us the answer:

“For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” (Hebrews 4:2)

We need to be engaged with sincere faith to feel the Spirit!

If we aren’t “spiritually engaged” with our faith, we can’t learn what others learn, even when we listen to the same lessons, podcasts, or talks.

“We cannot grow someone else’s faith or rely solely on others to bolster our own.” Elder Dale G. Renlund

“The word” of truth itself doesn’t hold any ability to pierce our heart.

It’s the Spirit who is ready to testify, impress, or witness to our individual hearts in exactly the way that we need it, and to the exact capacity that we are prepared for.

And just to be clear, we can’t demand the Spirit to do anything.

Sometimes the faith and intent is there, but God knows we need patience or a new perspective or… whatever is aligned with His perfect will.

But besides that caveat, I find this so empowering.

I don’t have to wait for the Spirit to try and break through randomly.

I can bring my own engaged, sincere faith to the table.

During scripture study.

On Sundays.

During temple worship.

In a Primary lesson.

I can use my faith in Jesus Christ to “profit” more from the word of God.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Were we in the same lesson?! first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I recognized that I felt pretty uneducated about the subject, because most of the “knowledge” I had was what some leader had taught me in class, or what I read in a blog post one time.

So I went on a search for knowledge and truth from the best sources that I could find.

And I actively tried to ignore anyone else’s perspectives or interpretations, no matter how right they sounded.

My search brought me to 4 places, essentially.

The scriptures.

General Conference manuscripts.

The plethora of other church-produced materials provided on the church’s website.

And prayer.

I stuck to those 4 locations.

I searched a lot. I pondered a lot. I took it slowly.

D&C 88:118 really touches my heart and reminds me of this time in my life.

Here, the Lord teaches:

“Seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.”

I didn’t read my answer anywhere written in stone.

But eventually, I had as much knowledge as if it had been.

I prayed and had promptings and felt the spirit whisper to me enough that I realized I knew at least portions of the answers I had been seeking.

And I felt a deep, eternal, and confident peace in the things I still didn’t know.

That was hard sometimes for my brain to wrap itself around– the fact that I didn’t find my answer explicitly hidden somewhere.

Instead, I had to also use faith to fill in some of the spaces.

But deep down, I was just as sure in my knowledge as if I had learned it through any other way.

Knowledge and wisdom are out there. It’s hard to imagine that someone hasn’t already discovered the truth and I can just google enough that I can find it.

With the real, deep stuff, I’ve learned to rely on my own judgment, to be led by the Spirit to the best sources.

And then to let my faith step in for the rest.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post The best books first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I mean, I’m a teacher by profession, but something about sitting in a small room with a small group of youth for almost an hour seemed intimidating to me.

I looked online and found the best resources. I printed things out. I found good discussion questions.

I used all my knowledge of how to engage and educate.

And the lesson went well! I don’t remember the topic I taught about, but I totally remember that it was great! I was spiritually uplifted, the youth seemed engaged, and everything went smoothly.

The next week that I had to teach, I saw that my topic was “scripture study”, and I got so excited!

THIS was a topic I was passionate about.

I had prayed and studied for a long time about how to improve my scripture study.

I felt like I had so much life experience to share, and real, practical advice.

I wanted to search online for resources again, but I decided this time to just create something from what I knew.

I wrote down a basic outline, and my mind kept running.

When I taught that lesson, it was mostly just me talking. I shared stories and experiences and I asked questions to the youth.

And it was POWERFUL.

Not just a “good lesson” – it was transformative. I had sincere gratitude shown by many of the class members at the end of the lesson. And I still remember it to this day.

Do you wanna know one of the reasons I started Come Follow Me Study over 2 years ago?

Because when I searched for “Come, Follow Me” resources, I only found ways to teach your kids about the lessons, or how to teach a church lesson on the topic.

And I have gained such a strong testimony that we have to learn for ourselves first.

In fact, I think that’s the best way to teach – to share what we have learned from the heart. From real life experiences. From real struggles and testimonies and tests.

Authenticity.

This is not a knock at lesson-helps – I actually have tried and currently use many that I love. They totally have their place, and I am so grateful for those who use their talents in that area.

But… are we TOO concerned about how to teach a topic? How to give a good talk? How to keep our class engaged?

Or is our focus on how WE can gain a better understanding of a concept?

And I think that’s the point the Lord wanted to share with Hyrum Smith in Section 11.

The Lord knew Hyrum wanted to get out there and preach the word as a missionary.

But Hyrum needed to obtain it first. He needed to learn of the doctrine and keep the commandments all by himself before he could go out converting others.

Obtaining first is better than declaring first.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Obtaining the word first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

They were referring to political opinions, but to me, this is the perfect framework for all of life.

It reminded me of another favorite phrase: “When people know better, they do better.”

These all sound so good in theory.

But this is where the rubber meets the road in terms of religion.

Because guess what our brains really love?

Habits. Routine. Same old, same old.

Not changing.

The “natural man” within us wants us to stay the way we are.

But the natural man is an enemy to God.

And so, we try to use the information we learn in order to change.

We read scriptures, we listen to hours of General Conference, we attend church, we have conversations with loved ones, we read articles…

We learn more. We learn how to be better.

And when we gain that knowledge, we have to go through that painful but essential growth of repentance.

Every single day.

We use that knowledge to fuel change in our lives.

And that’s what enduring means. Repenting. Changing. Every day.

In that two-part process: learning more, and then changing to fit our new knowledge.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Changing until the end first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.