Book of Mormon Family Study

About a year or so ago, I took a new approach to our family scripture study.  Using The Book ofMormon for Latter-day Saint Families, that breaks the chapters into smaller groups, and the Book of Mormon Student Manual Religion 121-122 I spend my personal scripture study time, preparing for our daily family scripture study.  I read the small section or sections that we will read that night as a family, along with the related commentary from the student manual, and create questions and discussion topics so that as we study the scriptures as a family, we are learning their lessons and application in our lives.  (Lest I give the wrong impression, there are some nights that we still only just read because the “story” takes a few days to get through before we can analyze it and learn from it.  And some nights we miss and some nights people don't want to participate...I just didn't want you to think we were perfect at this.)

Because I also want to read all of the Ensign every month, when I finish preparing for family scripture study (which usually only takes 10 to 15 minutes) I read an article from the Ensign.  This morning, after preparing for family scripture study (we’re going to be reading Alma 58:1-12), I opened up the Ensign to read and turned to an article where the title seemed to jump off of the page, “How Disciples of Christ Live in Times of War and Violence”.  The article was an in depth discussion on the topic/principle that is learned from the verses we will study tonight as a family.  This same thing happened to me last month when, on another morning, I had picked up the Ensign after preparing for family scripture study, and had one of the Article Titles listed on the cover of the Ensign pop off the page…it was exactly the topic I had prepared to discuss during that evening’s family scripture study.  So, when it happened again this morning, it caused me to pause and reflect for a moment.

Here are my thoughts (explained the best that I can since I don’t do a good job of explaining my thoughts.)  The Book of Mormon is such a blessing to our lives and I love the opportunity to read and study it.  It truly was written for our day and if we study it and seek for insight and understanding, applying what we learn to our lives, we are blessed.  Studying it as a family is so important.  Something about last month’s experience and today’s experience seems to validate, to me, the time and effort that I spend trying to create a meaningful scripture study experience for my family.  It was one of those times when the spirit quickly whispered to my soul, “what you are doing is so important and worth it.”  And today, I needed to hear that.

And now, I am excited.   We’ll do what we did last month.  Tonight, we will read and discuss the scriptures and tomorrow night we will delve deeper into the topic as we read and discuss the related Ensign article.  And let me just add, my children amaze me as I am fully expecting that they will “get into it” just like they did last month.  Their insights and their ability/desire to engage in gospel discussion far exceeds what I could do/wanted to do at their age.  They are mighty spirits.