The Example of Children

As my wife and I were working last night, we glanced over at our 2 year old and found this:

He was looking for pictures of Jesus. What a great reminder that we need to be reading daily from the words of the prophets. I love how our little ones also make sure that we read the scriptures, have family prayer, and sing our primary song nightly. It is amazing the power little ones can have over adults, and even more astounding is the amount of love that they can extract from us as their parents. I also love how forgiving little ones are. I look forward to having our 5th child with in the next two weeks. What a blessing from the Lord.

Scriptures- Reading or Studying?

After reading the Book of Mormon every night with my kids, I have come to the realization that we are simply reading the scriptures together and not truly studying them.

This really bugged me at first. We are told to "feast" upon the words.

But I have come the realization that until my children can really read and focus, that my job, as their parent, is to expose them to the words of the prophets. To build a habit of opening and reading the words of God. This will hopefully transfer to their later lives when they have the cognitive ability truly read and comprehend in a way that will allow them to ponder on the principles that are being taught. I know that as our family ages together, this precious time that will have become a habit, will be a time to truly study and discuss the gospel truths that are waiting to be shared.

While I look forward to that day, I am going to take the time to truly cherish the special moments that I am privileged to share with my sweet kids and the Word of God.

Keep the Faith...

Technology Leads the Way in Scripture Study

Ok, Ok. So I know that as a latter-day generation that we should work hard to avoid the pitfalls of the world and focus our time and attention on serving others and improving ourselves. And... I feel that I do that pretty well. But when something comes along that can 1)remind me daily to feast on the word and 2)make it so I can read anywhere, how can I refuse.

Last Sunday, I ended up teaching the EQ lesson. It wasn't expected, but I can say that I was prepared. It was a great lesson and it went well. As a presidency we have decided to have a monthly theme (Okay, I think I mostly decided and my counselors are just going with it). Anyways, our theme for April is "Lengthen Your Stride". As part of the theme, we issue a monthly family challenge. April's challenge is to read the scriptures as a family every day. To help promote this challenge, I provided the elders with a bunch of resources. For one of the resources, I found an amazing website that allows you to set up a reading schedule for the standard works, teaching of the presidents books, and the church magazines, and then the site e-mail's you the amount of reading you have to do to complete your choosen task on time. The part that I like the best about this whole process is that unless you click on the completed link at the bottom of the e-mail, it won't send you your next selection. For more details and to sign up for a FREE account, go HERE.

I can say that so far, I have been able to fulfill the EQ Challenge for the month. I hope that you and your family will too. And if, like me, it takes seeing in your e-mail inbox your "ReadtheScriptures" e-mail to remind you to read for the day, then so much the better!

Keep the Faith!