Family Scripture Study; It's Working!

First off, a few pictures of our visit to the Portland Zoo. We took advantage of a sunny morning, well, mixed with clouds and a few showers on us, but a good morning. It was wonderful to nearly have the park to ourselves, going on a weekday. The walk around the zoo was so gorgeous. It's a zoo within a forest, the huge Oregon trees towering over the walkways. 

This week, my testimony of family scripture reading has been strengthened, and I have to write this down. For the past few weeks, we've had too much yelling, too much meanness between the kids, and not enough kindness and love. It was getting to all of us, and I wanted it to stop. For the hundreth time, I tried again to start up our daily reading with the kids.

 Last Sunday, we decided to set a goal. It was really easy; 'Let's just see if we can read our scriptures for 7 days, just till the next Sunday. Let's see if we can actually do it', hoping it would last longer. 

Well, here's the magic that has happened in our home since Sunday; the spirit is in our home again. How can I tell? Ethan and Kevin have played nice together for two days straight. They've been buddies, playing in the backyard digging up worms, putting them in jars, and actually being obedient and leaving them outside to play with. They still have had their sibling moments of yuck, but it has gone down a lot. 

Kevin and Brooke have been playing so sweetly together. Kevin makes her giggle like crazy. She tickles him. In the picture above, he was holding her hand, and helping her around the zoo. All of this has made my heart sing with joy.

This is what our scripture study consists of; a little before bedtime we've been sitting on our big king bed. I play a church song on the guitar, and try to get the kids to sing. It doesn't matter if they sing, as long as we're actually doing something. We then have read a scripture mastery verse, or something. At least one verse, and then we try to talk about it, within their short attention spans. Then, we say our family prayers, and get them ready for bed. That's it, and because we've done it every night since Sunday, the love and kindness has returned. I don't want it to leave, so I'm going to try very hard to be consistent into next week and beyond. 

I've also learned some incredible things about my personal scripture studying and keeping a scripture journal. That will be another post for next week. I can't wait to share what I've learned. All I can say is this; I just want to study my scriptures in my free time. I actually want to, isn't that insane? I haven't felt that way since the mission. I'll explain tons more next week:)

So, if you're struggling in your family with scripture studying, please don't give up. Try again, be consistent and have the faith that your home will be blessed with a greater measure of peace. It might not feel super enriching, but the fact that you're at least trying will be met with help from above. I'm seeing it happen right now. 

One fabulous thought to ponder:

"Sister Maynes and I learned some important principles as we began the process of establishing a Christ-centered home early in our marriage. We started by following the counsel of our Church leaders. We brought our children together and held weekly family home evenings as well as daily prayer and scripture study. It was not always easy, convenient, or successful, but over time these simple gatherings became treasured family traditions.

We learned that our children might not remember everything about the family home evening lesson later in the week, but they would remember that we held it. We learned that later in the day at school they would probably not remember the exact words of the scriptures or the prayer, but they would remember that we did read scriptures and we did have prayer. Brothers and sisters, there is great power and protection for us and our youth in establishing celestial traditions in the home."

Richard J. Maynes