My husband and I have served in leadership positions for nearly all of our married life within the church. One recurring problem that has constantly been present no matter what state we live or what age we are working with is that the vast majority of people do not immerse themselves in their scriptures (core book) on a daily basis. They also don't pray.
How can we ever expect to get through life with out immersing our selves in the Spirit? Scriptural neglect might have been okay twenty or thirty years ago, but today it is not! Not only do we need to read our Scriptures but we need to study them. There are messages in there so profound and so timely that will provide key knowledge for our progression as well as protection.
I know one complaint that I've heard is that 'I've read it all already, there's nothing more to learn from he Tree of Life story.' (or Alma 32 or Moroni 10, ................) I've spent one to two hours in the scriptures every morning for years and I'm here to tell you there are truths yet to be discovered. I love the scriptures!! I can't get enough of them. They have chased away all my fears, all my frustrations and all my inadequacies.
So this post wasn't meant to be so much about getting the mama's and the papa's reading as it was to encourage you to create a plan to ensure that your children are reading every day in their scriptures. (I don't think it counts if they read scriptures with family scripture study, your kids still need to read on their own, sorry).
Proverbs teaches us, "To train up a child in the way that they should go." Now we've all heard that. May I suggest that we train our little ones before they get too big? That way they have the habits down pat when they are little.
Here's what I've done. I offer this only has an idea to spring board your own thoughts and personal revelation! With each of my kids I've read them the scripture readers until they are 5. Then I ask them if they want to read out of the big scriptures. They always say yes. Then we start with verse one. "I Nephi......" I showed them the word THE. Then I would read the verse to them and they would supply the necessary THE at the appropriate spots. The next day we worked on AND. We kept going in the manner. I'd read every day with them. Sometimes I would continue to read out of the reader with them.
After a time they would ask to read two verses with me. Currently my youngest is still not independent and he still reads with me every morning. We read a column together. Followed by the reader which we take turns reading. (This is actually how I taught all four of my kids to read. I only supplemented the scriptures with the McGuffy Primer).
I always have them read before breakfast. Why? Because I want the habit ingrained in them as part of their life. So that no matter what happens during that day (they are a dad and they have to go to work) they will have already read their scriptures for the day. I try to check with the boys every morning to ask them what they've read. We usually have a good discussion about what they learned. They feel free to ask questions. This way I also know that they have read.
For all you late risers, or fuzzy brained morningers (Olivia) I just want to point out that Olivia reads her scriptures faithfully at night and as done so for years. I just think that you need to help your kids create a time that is habitual either in the morning or the night, avoid the daytime (in my personal opinion).
So the point of this post, let's get our children trained in their scripture reading while they are young so that "when they are old they will not depart from it."
4 comments:
I agree that scripture and prayer are valuable tools. I look forward to quiet time every afternoon to get recentered and rejuvenated.
This is something I definitely need to work on with my children. We read together as a family and I used to require that they read on their own before they went to bed but then they would ask me how much the "had" to read. I never want them to feel like they are only reading because I am making them. I want them to love to read. Maybe if I had been a better teacher when they were younger they would have grown up loving it but what would you do if you were starting with older children?
I love the wonderful way to teach them to read the scriptures (and in general). I'm going to try this with my 4 year old when he's ready.
I always have my kids read scriptures before breakfast as well just because that is when I like to read. I put it on their morning list as "personal time". I've told them that it's a time to connect with God in the morning - they can choose to use that privilege however they want. They know that the best way is through reading scriptures and praying so that is what they choose to do.
I agree that it is so important for them to get into the habit of making time to get in touch with Heavenly Father every day. I'm still working on it. Your dedication is inspiring!
Lazy Lara in our family you can not "gratuate" from core phase unless you read your scriptures everyday. If Caleb (who is in core phase) told me he didn't want to read scriptures I would just read them to him. He's always wanted to read though.
So when our kids have displayed for several months the consistancy of reading their scriptures everyday along with other things they can "move on." We believe that core phase means, besides learning core values, that there are certain core "habits" that are necessary.
Also they have always seen Alex and I up early reading our scriptures. We have inspired them always and so they just do. So I would say the first step is your children seeing you and your husband "feast" daily. Another thing is that we always talk about what we read with them. Almost every discussion includes scripture references that pertain to our discussion subject.
Maybe I'll write a post to talk about things more specifically. You can search my blog because I have written several core phase blog posts in the last six months.
(Forgive the spelling I'm out of state and not on my computer).
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