Day 10: Family Scripture Study

It's been a crazy week.  Not what I had planned at all.  I took an unexpected overnight trip to a city 6 hours away.  I did the driving and arrived home exhausted at midnight last night.  Lots of things I planned to do this week didn't get done.  Many of the routines in our family life were disrupted, but when I got up this morning - a little later than usual - I found one routine was still functioning just like it always does.  I came into the main room where Harold was reading these words to our children, "Be faithful in Christ. . . And may the grace of God the Father, whose throne is high in the heavens, and our Lord Jesus Christ who sitteth on the right hand of his power . . . be, and abide in you forever" (Moroni 9:25-26).  

Family scripture study is another of those "weight bearing beams in a Christ-centered home."  It keeps us focused on our faith and focused on Christ.  I'm not delusional enough to think that our children listen to everything we read or even get much out of it, but the consistency of the routine lets them know that it is important to us.  Even better is that the scriptures invite the Holy Ghost to be in our lives and boy, do we need that in our world today.

Scripture study wasn't an easy habit to establish and took lots of trial and error on our part, but we finally came up with a pattern that works for us.  I've tried to make it more elaborate at times, to include more discussion, singing and interaction.  But at this point in our family simplicity is the name of the game.

Every morning we gather our children together and start our day with a thought and family prayer.  Our morning scripture is almost always a quote from a living prophet.  We use the General Conference Ensign and New Era.  Sometimes during Christmas and Easter we will do specific scriptures and quotes that relate to the holiday at hand.

In the evening we gather our children together for scripture study and family prayer.  This is where we do our more formal study of the scriptures.  Everyone has a chance to read.  Sometimes we discuss what we've read, but usually we feel it is enough that we got everyone together to read the words of Christ.

Sometimes I wonder if what we are doing is enough.  I hear of families who have meaningful discussions and challenge each other to do better.  Sometimes I feel badly that, that isn't my family.  Still, I have to remember that the consistency of this routine matters.  I love that we bookend our days with scriptures and prayer.  It is comforting and reassuring.  It brings us together in a positive way.  It's worth every effort we made in the beginning to make it a habit.