Bold, wise, and courageous while being a minority are some of Daniel\u2019s admirable traits in the Old Testament. Until this week, I never correlated his actions with his \u201clearning and skill in all literature\u201d as seen in Daniel 1:17 [1]. Perhaps it seemed more obvious as I have focused my own on reading, writing, and note-taking. If learning and literature skills produce courageous followers of God like Daniel and his colleagues, should I not also consider expanding mine as well?<\/p>\n
It is essential to know one\u2019s starting point to improve oneself. When considering my abilities to read, write, and take notes, I initially thought my reading skills were the weakest. I was an early, avid reader in my childhood. That eager consumption of books drastically slowed as an adult. I bought and started reading hundreds of books. The minuscule percentage of these books that I read from start to finish was embarrassing. That is until I completed the book, How to Read a Book by <\/em>Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren.<\/em> I was enlightened to learn that I do an inspectional reading on almost every book I pick up. My list of unfinished books is largely because I gained enough information through my initial investigations. I anticipate awakening my literary enthusiasm as I grow in reading methods.<\/p>\n As rare as it is to see my past self with a book, I am often found with a pen. On the phone, sitting in church, listening to a lecture,\u00a0 I enjoy jotting down notes. Note-taking helps me stay present in the moment rather than jumping into the future and getting lost in my thoughts. Are these notes affective? Do I refer to them at other times? Are they organized and usable? The answer to these is generally in the negative. It would be accurate to say there is exponential potential for personal growth in my note-taking skills. I believe developing excellent note-taking skills will be valuable to capture highlights, improve writing content, and deepen understanding. This area that needs the significant improvement may prove to have greatest return on investment for my life.<\/p>\n Writing is the skill I enjoy and use the most. My academic writing is influenced through my undergraduate and graduate degrees in science. This formation allowed me to develop skills in portraying information in precise methods. Living in Africa, letters, short stories, and reflections are ways to engage and invite others into my life from a distance. As an external processor, writing is a way I can privately externalize my thoughts. In my spiritual life, this manifests in writing prayers and sharing internal struggles with God in my journal. Reflecting on these contemplations and recording God\u2019s responses to them have become an essential spiritual practice and tool in my spiritual walk. This semester I pray that God will increase my wisdom, learning and my abilities in these areas to prepare me to be a courageous follower like Daniel.<\/p>\n [1] Crossway Bibles, ed. 2008.\u00a0ESV Study Bible: English Standard Version<\/em>. ESV text ed. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles, p.1587.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bold, wise, and courageous while being a minority are some of Daniel\u2019s admirable traits in the Old Testament. Until this week, I never correlated his actions with his \u201clearning and skill in all literature\u201d as seen in Daniel 1:17 [1]. Perhaps it seemed more obvious as I have focused my own on reading, writing, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34803"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34875,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34803\/revisions\/34875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}