The Hinckley Challenge

A few people have asked me about the Hinckley Challenge charts I have on the left of my blog, so for those of you who have not heard about it, let me explain. I have no idea who began the Hinckley Challenge, only that it was a group of members of the church. They say, "President Hinckley often stressed our making the Book of Mormon part of our lives. He was 97 when he passed away, and we would like to celebrate his life and teachings by reading the Book of Mormon in 97 days." When I heard of this I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to show the Lord my gratitude for His servant, President Gordon B. Hinckley, as well as my gratitude for the Book of Mormon, all latter-day prophets, and the gospel in general. So Jason and I are doing this for our personal scripture reading each day. The challenge officially began on February 4th, however when you log on to their website (http://www.hinckleychallenge.com/index.php) you can start anytime and the program even helps you calculate how much you need to read per day to get caught up.

Anyway, I just thought this would be a great opportunity for our family, and maybe for yours as well, to study the scriptures a little harder and to follow the words of our prophets and Heavenly Father a little more closely.

"I take in my hand the Book of Mormon. I read its words. I have read Joseph Smith's explanation of how it came to be. To the unbelieving it is a story difficult to accept, and critics for generations have worn out their lives writing books intended to refute that story and to offer other explanations than the one given by Joseph the Prophet. But to the open-minded, this critical writing has only stimulated them to dig deeper; and the more deeply they dig, the greater the accumulation of evidence for the validity of Joseph Smith's story. Still, as has been demonstrated for a hundred and fifty years, the truth of the Book of Mormon will not be determined by literary analysis or by scientific research, although these continue to be reassuring. The truth about the origins of the Book of Mormon will be determined today and tomorrow, as it has been throughout the yesterdays, by reading the book in a spirit of reverence and respect and prayer." - President Gordon B. Hinckley ( "Praise to the Man," Ensign, Aug. 1983, 4)