Jonathan B. - “Exams/papers/DOMINION!” part 2 (or “Exam Time”) has been reprinted from the Christian Science Sentinel, Jan. 15–22, 2006
Wasn’t sure which forum to post this in—but here it is: I was wondering if y’all would want to bounce ideas around on how to prepare spiritually for exams. Historically, I have found this time of year (now until mid-December) extremely stressful. The human picture—very little time to pack a lot of information into the grey matter in my head. Of course—in the divine sense, God supplies the answer to every question and need. For me, exams are exhausting and frightening. I know they don’t need to be—and any advice or spiritual inspirations would be greatly appreciated!
A healing I had last year—I had a very acute and intense headache that would surface after about half an hour of reading. This was pretty disconcerting considering the mass quantities of reading I needed to do to prepare for each exam. I didn’t know how I would even take an exam with such a terrible reoccurring problem. I spoke to my mother several times through this period, and she suggested several good hymns. I worked closely with the idea that “God is working His purpose out” (see Hymn No. 82 in the Christian Science Hymnal). I had recently transferred to a very competitive graduate school, where I tended to feel inferior to the super-genius type people that surrounded me. I had been so excited to get into this school, but so dismayed at the idea of getting bad grades in my first semester. My mom reminded me, however, that God doesn’t take us halfway. God doesn’t drop you five feet from the fountain and say good luck getting a drink! God takes you all the way. 100%. I worked with Science and Health and some other hymns.
Surprise, surprise—here is the answer that came to me: I didn’t need to study harder, I needed to study smarter. Instead of blindly reading everything, I focused closely on the materials I needed to learn. When my headache would act up, I would take breaks to listen to audio clips of the lesson. I took each of the five exams with ease. Each exam was between 3 to 4 hours of intense reading, analysis, and writing. I was free from the headaches. The claims of a headache have never reoccurred. In fact, that semester ended up being my best semester and gave me a decent ranking at my new school.
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I am looking at the bound volume of the Sentinel Jan. 16-23, 2006 as given in the intro above, and do not find this article. Just found it in the 2007 issue in our saved issues.
Also, Part 1 was not available, as stated, on the Website given in this week’s issue of myBibleLesson.
Hi Jo, my bible lesson team here. Thanks for pointing this out! You are correct, in the Christian Science Sentinel this entire article is found in Jan. 15-22, 2007. We’re currently correcting the pdf on our website and you should see a change sometime today.
Part 1 of this article is found on this website by clicking on “May 2007″ under “Archives” on the left of this web page.
Thank you for your comments and all your support of my Bible Lesson!
-my Bible Lesson Team
I had an interesting experience with an end of the year English literature exam in high school. I couldn’t imagine how I could possibly study every thing so I prayed and listened to what thoughts came to me. I was impressed when I learned I had studied just exactly what was needed in order to perform well on the test.
Another time in a geometry class, the students were given 5 minutes for a 5 problem quiz. I silently declared “God is my Mind” and then proceeded totally focused on my work. I was one of a small number of students who finished all 5 problems correctly.
On the other hand, I once had not prepared for a college algebra test and proceeded to take it with the thought, “I’m not prepared to do well.” When I got the test back, I was surprised to find that I knew how to solve one of the problems which was marked wrong because my mind was blocked against it while taking the test.
I really like the idea of studying smarter, not harder. Also, it is encouraging to think of “God is working His purpose out”.
Thanks for sharing this article