Before Joey was born, I told Tony we needed to start reading scriptures together as a family. We decided before family prayer/bedtime would be the most consistent time for us. How much should we read? Where should we start? Well, we started at the beginning and read 3 verses a night. Yes, 3 small verses. I remember our first night, anticipating a family spiritual moment. We read the 3 verses and looked at each other like, "that was it?" It seemed pointless.
200 + days later, reading 3 verses a night, we finished 1 Nephi.
Finally.....
Some nights were great and others were not. We learned that announcing "it's time for scriptures!" wasn't the best approach since Charlie would scream "noooooo!" because he knew scriptures = bedtime and he didn't want to go to bed.
I remember one night we came back late from somewhere. Tony was probably putting Joey to bed and I was dealing with a very tired Charlie. I pulled out the scriptures and not wanting to lose our spot as a family, I opened up and read the first 3 verses I saw. As Charlie threw a tantrum I read,
"...becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." I was laughing so hard I could barely get the words out.
Charlie's job from day 1 has been to get the scriptures out of his night stand, hand them to us, keep one for himself & put them away when we're finished. He likes having a job. We knew we were making an impression when Charlie started getting the scriptures out before we would ask.
We were proud when he could point out Christ, Joseph Smith, Samuel the Lamanite (his favorite) and Nephi on the boat from the pictures at the front of the book.
We decided we would celebrate completing each book in The Book of Mormon by having an ice cream party. Monday night was our first ever scripture ice cream party. The boys and I picked up waffle bowls, chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate syrup that morning at the store.
We talked about what we learned from reading. Here is what has been true for us:
We read with small children to create a habit.
I know Charlie couldn't tell you about the liahona, tree of life or really anything in 1 Nephi. However, I do know that he knows the scriptures are important to us. He knows they talk of Christ because he hears His name in them. He knows we read every night.
One day our kids will need to make decisions. I hope they will choose the right, but they might not. I hope they will come to us for help, but they might not. We can't make decisions for them but we can teach them how to make decisions and this is best way I know.
