A General Conference Challenge

"The only things that really need to be accomplished in the home are daily scripture study and prayer and weekly family home evening." -Linda S. Reeves, April 2014 General Conference

Of all the things I got from General Conference, this impacted me the most. Kevin and I talked about it and decided that we needed to include Joseph in scripture study more than we were. We had both been occasionally reading from the scriptures to him at bedtime, but we felt like we needed to do it more as a family.

So, slowly but surely, we're starting to go through the Book of Mormon with Joseph. We read about 4-6 verses, pausing on the interesting verbs and nouns for Joseph to repeat. By the end of the 3rd verse, he usually gets pretty antsy and we decide that that's good enough for the night.

Although it's a very little change in our nightly routine, I really feel like it's made a difference in our lives.

Not visibly, necessarily. Joseph is getting molars, getting older, and getting a feisty streak. Since we started reading scriptures, he's had more tantrums than ever. In some ways, it seems the added measure of peace we've gotten has been canceled out by tantrums. But because that added measure of peace has been internal, impervious to screaming, it has made dealing with tantrums that much easier.

What I love most is that Joseph actually gets some of what we're reading. As President Eyring said 10 minutes after Sister Reeve, "Young children are often more sensitive to the Spirit than we realize." He would get excited every time he had the chance to say "Messiah." He somehow caught on to what we were talking about in 1 Nephi 10 and started prodding us "Jesus bastize. Jesus bastize" because he could watch that 2 minute Bible video 100 times without getting bored. (It's up there with Winnie the Pooh and "leddi go.") Although many of our spiritual discussions end up talking about Happy Easter Eggs instead of Happy Easter, or raisins and candy when I ask him to say "resurrection," it's cool to see that he is learning, and he really does care.

Anyway, I recommend it!