[Teachldsseminary] IDEA: A great chapter about the importance of Scripture reading, in a great book

[roos1111@xs4all.nl]

I have the book 'Raising up the family to the Lord' by Gene R. Cook, and he has written a great chapter (#4) about the importance of family Scripture reading. 

I bought this book at a bookstore (www.deseretbookstore.com) but I know that you can download this book (and several others by the same author, and very, very worthwhile too!) at www.ldsaudio.com. It is also available on Gospelink (www.gospelink.com) when you have a subscription for that. 

In this long chapter about the importance of family Scripture reading he talks about the reasons people will give why they won't have family Scripture reading together, and he will share what he has tried over the years with his (large) family. It is good to read about his successes and about what didn't work for them either, as a family. 

First he has written down a list of excuses that he has heard over the years why people won't have family Scripture Study (and I could relate to some of them :), and then he shares a quote of president Ezra Taft Benson: 

    'Speaking to the youth and children of the Church, President Ezra Taft Benson gave great counsel concerning family scripture study: "Children, support your parents in their efforts to have daily family scripture study. Pray for them as they pray for you. The adversary does not want scripture study to take place in our homes, and so he will create problems if he can. But we must persist."

Then elder Cook continues: 'The list of excuses seems to go on and on. I think we would have a difficult time giving any of those excuses to the Lord. Do we really think he'd say, "Well, I suppose I understand. It's okay, then, that you didn't read the scriptures."

We as parents in our ward (in the Netherlands) have been asked to sit down with our children during their homestudy of the DC (I am the seminary teacher who teaches once a week, before YM-YW activity on Friday), and study with them. No lesson, no preaching, just reading the DC with them together, using their student manual to just get a discussion going. 

I have done that this week and I would like to share with you how wonderful that has been. Starting the day together, with my son, just reading the Scriptures, putting in the glue notes that I created for the SM, and knowing that we are obedient to the words of our prophets gave me a very good feeling to start the day with. And of course the words that we read in the DC keeps 'coming back' in your head, during the day.

Elder Cook also suggests to find a place that will be comfortable for your family; sitting around the kitchen table, can be asked a bit too much during the early morning. So he talks about how they all sit in their living room, with their blankets on the couch. 

This is what I did: I make some tea and I go to the room of my son. He can adjust his bed so that he can sit straight up (and he is required to do so), but he can still stay in his bed. It is just importance to find a way that will work for you as a parent and for the children. 

Every family situation is different, and what will work for one family won't work for another family, but reading daily as a family is a very good principle, and it gave me a happy feeling :)

Francisca, in the Netherlands
fvanroosmalen at gmail.com


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