Scriptures

So after evaluating how we are doing in life, Ben and I decided that more could be done to have a more spiritually minded home and family. We looked at what we could do to do that. One decision we made was to have daily family scripture study.

At first I thought that it was crazy. Our kids are young, how much would they understand if any of it and how much would we actually get to read and enjoy. Our Stake president asked us to read at least 15 minute a day; so we decided to make that our goal.

We had a family home evening lesson on the importance of the scriptures and then we had the kids help us pick out a Book of Mormon reading chart. We picked some stickers and we started our goal.

The first few nights were really hard. We have the children Book of Mormon Stories book which we thought would be good to help keep the kids interested in the scriptures, but they just fought over who gets to turn the page and they can't stand to be stuck on the same page for long periods of time. Which generally happened with the Book of Mormon Stories book. It was also taking its toll on us to do it at night before bed, it seemed to rile the kids up and then they had a hard time going to sleep. So we decided to change our reading time to after dinner.

So now, we sit down as a family for dinner and then who ever finishes first, Ben or I, we take turns reading while the kids finish their dinner. They normally take a long time to eat, so we figured it was a great time to keep them in one place while we read.

It has worked out pretty well. Ben and I will add our two cents in and try to explain it better in terms that the kids will understand. Some days are better then others and some days are a joke. It makes it really hard to want to continue. It's Satan's way of trying to get us to stop reading the most important Scripture/book we have ever been given. Ben keeps reminding me of something that a ward member had mentioned once during their families scripture study.

"It doesn't matter how much you read, because some days we only get through one verse before all the kids have lost interest. It only matters that the children know that the scriptures are important and that they are an important part of our lives." 

I have to agree with them both. So even through the struggles of trying to read with the kids, it will all be worth it in the end. Worth it to help them make that connection with the scriptures and help them understand there importance. We want our kids to have a better relationship with the scriptures then either of us had growing up.