Day 3

Themes, Topics, Tangents, Quotes

The purpose for “Day 3” is to identify all of the “things” that your blessing talks about so you can research them.   I invite you to recognize 3 “levels” of things that are in your blessing.  At the top level are the recurring “themes.”  And within those themes, there’s a second level of “topics” that it mentions.   And, at the bottom level, there are tangents that might be mentioned even though they aren’t directly related to the theme(s).  While you are picking it apart, you might also notice places where it quotes a scripture passage.  For this Day’s work we are going to identify those things.

Evening:

Use 4 different pen colors or 4 unique ways of highlighting the different things you are looking for (theme, topic, tangent, quote).

For themes, you might see things like teaching the gospel, or motherhood, or discipleship, or missionary work, or … whatever your blessing focuses on a lot.  Things that it only mentions once or twice are probably more “topics” or “tangents”.

As you identify something interesting, (a topic, theme, etc) identify some scripture passages that talk about that theme/topic.  Write references on your blessing near the topic they apply to.

Morning:

Ponder on your blessing.  Starting down at the tangents and quotes.  And then the topics.  Study the related scripture passages you identified.  Ponder as you go.  Last of all, consider the themes.  Consider how your blessing “paints” your themes using the topics as building blocks.  Does your life have these same theme’s?

Record in your journal what your themes are, and how you feel about them.  Record which topics stand out to you, and how they have woven into your life.

At the End of Day 3:

You should feel knowledgeable about the themes of your blessing.  You should know where to find the passages of scripture that are quoted in your blessing.