2010, 22, 23).Several months ago I learned about audio resources for children from “ Your Story Hour.” Eyring, “Help Them On Their Way”, Ensign and Liahona, Nov. ![]() He states, “We help God's children best by providing ways to build faith in Jesus Christ and His restored gospel when they are young" and by doing this, they “will be less likely to need rescue as teenagers” (Henry B. When our children are immersed in the scriptures through family and personal study, we’re well on our way to doing what President Eyring teaches is one of our vital roles as parents. I want them to know it’s better to read something from the scriptures than nothing at all. And for particularly crazy mornings, I have my children look up or quote one of their favorite scriptures and ask them how that can help them for the day. On days when one of our sons might feel “too tired” to read, I remind him that reading from the scriptures helps him to have his spiritual armor for the day, which will protect him and help him make good decisions. Prayer is always a great source for needed inspiration. We’ve found it helps to remember that what works well for one child may not work for another, and each child’s age needs to be considered. For instance, the January 2012 Friend magazine has a great list of suggested Book of Mormon verses to read, which can make it easier for children to get a strong understanding of simple scripture truths.Īs with anything our children are learning, patience is needed as they strive to make scripture study part of their lives. Some children might also benefit from following a simplified reading schedule with verses that are ideal for children beginning to study the scriptures. For example, nothing brings a story to life like pictures! The Church has some wonderful images available for many scripture stories at lds.org in their media section, and these are a great way to introduce you child to a story they’re about to read. We in turn can ask them questions to gauge how they’re doing with comprehension and if they need a few more helps. We’ve found that being there with our younger readers as they begin personal study makes it easier to answer the questions they may have. Our middle son made this very apparent when, after reading a few verses in the Book of Mormon, he declared, “Mom, I can tell you right now I have no idea what this is talking about!” One thing to keep in mind, however, is that even if a child can read the words in the scriptures, they may not understand what they mean, which can obviously lessen their interest in reading at all. Once children are reading, they’re the perfect age to be introduced to personal scripture study. I soon discovered that children are often ready to study the scriptures at a much younger age than we might think and perhaps all they need is to be introduced to the idea.Ģ. It seemed to be just… too… hard.īut I didn’t want him to lose his desire to read, so I began putting great effort into helping my children understand and love the scriptures for themselves as young readers. However, he was quickly confused by the big words, phrases, and deep concepts and started to change his mind about wanting to read. ![]() ![]() That day my son, who was almost six at the time, told me he felt he needed to start reading from the scriptures on his own because he would “learn more that way.” He’s always been a very spiritually mature boy, but I was still surprised that he had this desire at such a young age when he had only been reading for a short time.īut I was so excited to hear him say this that as soon as we were home, we opened the Book of Mormon and started to read it together. This thought process all changed one Sunday afternoon as our family was walking out of church together.
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