Our Nightly Routine

Every night after dinner and baths, we've started reading the Book of Mormon again. OK, so it's only been about a week but hey, habits have to start somewhere. In the past, we would read through a chapter and then say prayers and go to bed. Gary and I would do the reading because, at that time, Tom and Logan weren't very strong readers yet. It's been a while I guess since we've been doing this. This go around, we are trying something different.

It all started because the boys have been having a hard time listening to us lately and I figured we needed to get back to basics. I was also a nervous wreck about school starting and sending my boys to school where they would most likely be the only kids in their grade with the same beliefs. I knew that one thing that could help was getting back to reading the scriptures as a family again.

Now, we read a chapter but I stop every few verses and explain what we've been reading. The first few chapters, Gary was working late and wasn't home for the reading. When he came home for the fourth night, I started as I had been by asking the boys if they remembered where we left off and what they thought was going to happen. We've also been asking who they want to be like, Nephi and Sam, and who they don't want to be like, Laman and Lemuel. Since we have four boys, it's been pretty easy so far to relate the actions of these four to our family. Gary was amazed at how well they could answer the questions.

It's fun to see them get excited about scripture study and not have it be one more thing that they have to sit still and be reverent. It sometimes takes all I have not to tell them to just be quiet after I've explained something and they are asking what seems like the ten thousandth question about it. It helps when I hear things like what Tom said the other night at the end of the chapter. "Can't we read one more chapter? It's just getting to the good part!" Hopefully we can instill a love of the scriptures in our boys and help these wonderful books come alive for them. I am also relying on the promises of the prophets that, by reading regularly from the Book of Mormon, we can have an added measure of the Spirit in our home. Heaven knows we can all use an added measure!