Learning...

Studying Spanish has been a different experience for both of us. Especially for me, when I think of how different this is from when I had Spanish classes in high school and college- it´s very much another ballgame. When I studied then, I was good at doing enough to get the grade I wanted (most of the time), but the objective was always to get a grade in the class; it never had anything to do with actually learning to communicate in Spanish. It´s the same with other subjects- except those of any former professors who may happen to be reading this- I studied for acceptable grades rather than for competence.

That option just isn´t open to us here. Sure, we could survive a couple more months of language school and have a good time here and possibly even give our teachers the impression that we´re working hard. The difference is that here, we don´t get any grades in our classes and there aren´t any quizzes or tests to pass or fail. All that matters is- when we´re done- will we be able to communicate well with people here or not?

Then thinking about that made me wonder- I´ve lived my entire life in the church, and how have I approached learning there? What about when I come to the scriptures- do I want to take in enough to make sure that I feel good about myself, or do I have the same urgency to learn from the Scriptures as I have in learning Spanish?

In learning Spanish, sure I´ve progressed quite a bit, but I know that I would be a fool to stay at my current level of competence. What about from God´s word? Do I approach the scriptures as if I´m a fool not to learn to live as they describe?