The fastest scripture looker upper

SacrificialLoon

A comment by Rubadub in the thread about learning new things at the meetings made me remember something, and gave me a chuckle.

I would always see how fast I could look up the scriptures during the talks, and race to beat most everyone else. Of course everyone else didn't realize I was racing them, but I'd always feel a smug (and perhaps a bit self-righteous) satisfaction at having the scripture looked up and ready to follow along while from the sights and sounds around me most everyone else was still looking it up. Being able to look up Jehovah's word with such speed would surely earn me spiritual brownie points.

Oh, and woe to the person still looking up the scripture when the reader started, for they would get a withering barrage of mental tsks from me! Unless they were sitting beside me then I'd have to show them the page number... while still getting a barrage of mental tsks.

Did anyone else have a silly pride in being able to look up scriptures with alacrity?

Satanus

Yah, i was like that during some of my earlier yrs. Thanks for the reminder and the laugh.

S

Gayle

aahhhh, yes! When my brother was 7 & I was 9,,we'd have races w/a brother about 80+ yrs old to find the scriptures,,we were so desparate for fun! ? Then on the bindery lines at Bethel, my brother said they had competitions. Wow, only in the WT!!

blondie

Once I wasn't looking up the scriptures. Afterwards, a brother remarked on it. I said I only looked up the ones that I couldn't quote what they said without looking. Taken aback, he quizzed me on 3 and was stunned that I knew what they said.

The secret is that JWs only use a small portion of scriptures in their material. After 30 or more years of hearing them over and over, I knew what they said.

Now I'm trying to remember what they say in other translations and get a new view on things.

Blondie

Spectre

I didn't race anyone, but I did look them up as fast as possible out of boredom.

nvrgnbk

I thought all Witnesses got off on being the fastest lookers-upper of scripture. Except for the spiritually weak, of course.

Those slackers didn't even bother.

Easy sacrificial, you're giving me some wicked flash-backs of my wasted childhood.

Thanks alot,

Nvr

Alligator Wisdom

Oh yes!

Flashback! I remember my siblings and I before our teenage years racing to beat everyone in the congregation. Of course, if the brother were to start reading before we could find it...then we would lose points to enter into Paradise. Afterall, everything we did for Jehovah must be done with urgency and with utmost vigor.

The smaller prophetical books toward the end of the Hebrew scriptures were the ultimate test of speed and skill. LOL!

Did anyone else have a silly pride in being able to look up scriptures with alacrity?

"Alacrity"

Thanks for the new word to add into my vocabulary pool.

Alligator Wisdom (aka Brother NOT Exerting Vigorously)

choosing life

I always tried to be first to find the scriptures too. Silly, huh? But after a while, I wondered why we needed to look up the same scriptures over and over. Like Blondie said, after a while you knew them by heart. I mean, who needs to look up Matt. 24:14 or 1 Cor. 15:33? I was amazed at how much of the Bible they actually ignored and the scriptures they used were often taken out of context. It is interesting to read from other translations because you often find the meaning is quite different than what you were led to believe.

lisaBObeesa

Ah, good times...good times.

SirNose586

In the rare times that I was allowed to sit with my friends at the conventions, I always looked up scriptures faster so I could be the "more spiritual" guy.

Now I know why they don't look up scriptures that quickly, if at all. There's no point, really.

The fastest scripture looker upper

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