Family scripture study can be one of the most powerful tools against the confusion, stress, and just plain evil of the world today. Yet, it is becoming less and less common to see family’s studying and discussing the gospel together in their homes. You miss one day, and another, and soon you haven’t opened the scriptures with your children in months!
Sound familiar?
This isn’t a guilt trip. I’ve been there too. Many times. But guess what? There’s always tomorrow. So, let’s chat for just a minute about how you can start back up again – start the habit of studying the scriptures, and start defending your family against the evil influences of today’s world. Here are 5 tips for family scripture study.
Just Start
The most common question I get asked about scripture study is how to start. You just do it. Start! Open up your scriptures. Don’t worry too much about what method you are going to use, or what schedule you’re going to follow. Just open the pages and read.
Slow Down
Another scripture study tip I have for you is to slow down. It’s okay if you don’t read an entire chapter with your family every night. Start with a verse or two. Ask questions. Make it relatable. Something is much better than nothing.
Be Consistent
Consistency is key to successful scripture study. Set a regular time each day that works for your family, whether it’s in the morning, after dinner, or before bedtime. Creating a routine makes scripture study a natural and anticipated part of your daily schedule. Habit-stacking is great way to help your consistency. Do you always eat dinner together? Study together right before or after. Stack your family scripture study with something else your family always does together.
Look for the Savior
Studying the scriptures with my family isn’t always sunshine and roses. So, what keeps us coming back? It’s that connection to the Savior. It’s when we can feel His love. It’s receiving personal revelation. And none of that can happen if we aren’t making it meaningful; if we aren’t looking for the Savior on every page and in every verse.
Apply It to Your Life
Scripture study is not just an intellectual exercise; it’s a guide for practical living. As you encounter principles and doctrines in the scriptures, consider how they apply to your daily life. Seek opportunities to implement these teachings in your interactions with others, decision-making, and personal development. The scriptures are a blueprint for righteous living, and applying them actively fosters spiritual growth.
So, what does family scripture study look like to you? It’s looked like a lot of different things for me and my family over the years. We have risen early to read before school, we have tried making a habit of reading a chapter together before bed, and we have even read it together in Spanish. And after a recent dry-spell of longer than I would like to admit, we have a new system that is actually quite successful (even with very busy teens and a very busy Bishop).
This won’t work for everyone, but it’s working for us and so with that, I thought I would share our family scripture study system. But just remember that you should find what works for you. If this system isn’t it, try something else. A great place to start is this Ultimate Guide to Studying the Scriptures. It teaches you how to find a routine that works for you, ideas for lots of different study methods, and different schedules and plans you can follow. It really has everything to get started!
My Family’s Scripture Study System
With multiple teenagers always coming and going, and a busy bishop husband, this method has been really successful for my family recently. And the best part is that it checks off our personal Come Follow Me study and even helps our children learn how to teach the gospel to others. It’s a win-win-win. Here’s how it works.
The first step (and by far the most time-consuming) is assigning a scripture passage to each day of the year. You can do this week by week, month by month, or like me – input the whole year at one time. For example, for the first week of January, I went to the Come Follow Me website and clicked on that week’s Come Follow Me. Then I scrolled through to find scripture passages for each day of the week. January 1st is the Title Page of the BOM, January 2nd is the Intro to the BOM, and so on.
Next, I went to my Google Calendar and wrote in each day’s passages as an all day event. I saved it in our Family’s calendar that is shared with my husband and all of our children. That way, each day it will show them what the scripture passage is. I even saved a link in the event description so that they can click on it and it will automatically pull up the scripture.
It is each family member’s responsibility to read the scripture passage sometime during the day. It’s usually only a few verses, so it doesn’t take very long. Next, I assigned a day of the week to every member of my family. When it’s that person’s day, their job is to be in charge of leading a discussion, sharing a thought, or asking a question about that day’s scripture passage. Sometimes we have deep discussions, but usually we just listen to the thoughts of whoever is sharing that day.
After your calendar is all set up, this method only takes 5-10 minutes at the end of each day. But as everyone reads on their own sometime during the day, the scriptures are already on their mind and they are thinking about what they mean – especially if they are the one in charge of sharing a thought.
I’ve seen so many benefits of this system in just the few short weeks we have been doing it. I’ve even made the calendar shareable! If you would like my 2024 CFM Google Calendar, just click HERE.
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