The best experience is doing. One of the best learning source is others work. I would only suggest this if you have some basic knowledge, otherwise I’d recommend getting some background knowledge first.
You don’t just have to learn lua, all programming languages basically go back to the same root subjects, variables, functions, ect. Learning one proficiently will help with others. If you have the interest I would try learning something like C#. It’s very simple and straight forward and easy to get into, compared to say C++.
Here’s Microsofts IDE, it’s free and feature complete, note they have older version’s if you are running Vista and below.
I have never watched them but Jamie King on youtube has videos on the C#.
Fundamentals
Types
Generics
And many more. Overall the Internet is riddled with tutorial C# videos, find someone you enjoy watching.
Lua is different from C# but your understands will carry over.
http://stackoverflow.com/ is my main resource when stuck trying to figure something out.
Programming in my opinion can be difficult to get started in, but once you’ve gotten over the initial hurdle everything should come relatively naturally.
Normally I don’t like to push my own software, but
http://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/lua-unminifier-formatter-improved/
I use this to look through Stonehearth lua files. The main thing it does is format the minified files, making them much more readable. It also supports searching for text, and provides highlighting. Overrall it has some problems, but I currently use it everytime I go to do work on Stonehearth.
Best of Luck 
My hope is that because my code never calls any of the delete save functions, and re-uses save keys, that the ‘deleted saves’ bug wont be an issue. I can’t say for sure though. But thanks for the concern