Two months ago the bishop of our congregation challenged us to read the entire Book of Mormon in two months. One receives many blessings from such faithful and diligent study, but here is one I was not expecting at all.
We found a reading plan for The Princess and every night while the twins read a story with Mr. Right, The Princess and I would sit down to read our 26 verses of scripture. These 26 verses were comprised of mostly story portions instead of meaty doctrine.
Somedays, when there was less story and more doctrine I thought she'd want to call it quits. But no, she loved it. I could see on her face that she felt the truth and comfort of the messages.
I also think it's because I read to her using my most theatrical voice(s).
It was very interesting and exciting.
So interesting and exciting that within a month, two little people in footsie jammies had joined us on my bed, preferring scripture time to Go Dog Go.
This was curious because I know for a fact they don't understand it all. I say for a fact because often they would start whispering to each other or wiggling around. At these points Mr. Right would call upon them with the reminder that if they couldn't be reverent he would need to go with them to another room and read them a different story.
Was this enticing? Not at all. Quickly they'd fold their arms and sit very still while I kept reading.
However, despite their desires they are still little kids and they were still getting a lot of reminders and The Princess wasn't enjoying herself nearly as much now with all the interruptions.
That's when we brought out pads of papers and pencils.
My dad taught me this trick when he was teaching primary children. It's much easier for little minds to stay focused if little fingers are kept busy.
It reduced the reminders, which were still requred because even good little kids are still little kids.
Little kids who choose to listen to fifteen minutes of scripture reading.
Those three-year-old twins proved the truth of President Eyring's statement, "If scripture study is forced for either them or you, if your children feel pushed, or if you don’t really love the scriptures yourself, then scripture study doesn’t have as much power."
Our scripture studying expanded into Family Home Evenings. On our refrigerator we put pictures of the prophets we'd colored and what they'd taught us.
Samuel the Lamanite was brave
Alma the younger said sorry
Ammon was a good helper
and The Princess told us that the 10,000 young warriors listened to their moms and leaders
And we finished the Book of Mormon in two months.
With our momentum going good I decided to start the next night with the New Testament.
For a week or so I used the children's story version which has a picture for every verse when lo and behold, what should appear on LDS.org? Something very cool.
With incredible narrators (almost as good as me) and beautiful music and sounds, my children are mesmerized by the images and stories of the scriptures.
This night I gathered them around and began our modern scripture reading download. Apparently it was scripture time in a lot of homes because it wasn't downloading so quickly. The little bugs looked at me expectantly as I realized I should have done this earlier. I resorted to opening the audio file and then separately the picture file and scrolling through the images myself while the little bugs were spellbound to the narration.
And I felt it too, the spirit is strong when truth is taught, especially when accompanied by music.
After three chapters, I clicked it closed and looked at them all expectantly. Subdued, they walked down the hall (and I'm not even joking...The Pirate was folding his arms) and to their beds.
Secure and content they snuggled in their blankets and clicked on their bedlights for "light time". This is when they read their books or talk quietly while I visit with each one. The Pirate is pretty low on words at day's end and this evening even The Pixie was compliant.
I said my goodnights and looked at their sweet little bodies resting happily in warm blankets and I thought of Christ's words, “And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children” 3 Nephi 22:13
Some blessing, huh?
Yup...three of them.