We have been implementing our new and improved efforts to study the scriptures and I'm so thrilled with the results.
For years I have held morning devotional every day - without my husband. Finally, I responded to the idea that we should include him - or more likely - encourage him to lead us out. So in the evenings before saying family prayers, we've undertaken to read the Book of Mormon as a family - reading, discussing, marking, and testifying of its truthfulness. Whew. I felt amazing and proud of myself for handing that responsibility over to him. I'm anxious for his growth as well and the families response to his leadership. Granted, it is hit and miss due to his hit and miss work schedule but that is the plan in the evenings.
And so our daily devotional shrunk... dramatically. I wasn't sure exactly what to do during that time since we turned the family study time to the evenings. We dabbled a little with scripture master and personal scripture reading for 5 minutes, but basically the substance of our starter was weak and meaningless. I'd thought and played with the idea of customizing devotional activities for the special day child and had done it a little on Fridays - Joan of Arc's special day. But the other day, I sat down to brainstorm how to study scriptures without it being simply scripture study and discussion. How could I approach it so that my children get specialized attention for their needs. I did a little research, made a master list, and this is what I came up with.
Daily: Individual Personal Reading from the scriptures for at least 5 minutes. (I'm hoping to work that up to 30 minutes. Also, we are taking a conference talk and listening to it, taking notes, discussing. etc. The neat thing is that when we do the same talk the very next day - it's as if it were a completely different address but we got different notes the next day. Our intent is to clearly identify what the brethren are counseling us to do and then analyze whether we are doing it and implement an action plan to more completely follow the prophets voice. This is going to be fun.
Mondays - Doctrines and Principles Day: This is the day that we choose a doctrine and really get to the depth in research, analyzing what our understanding of the doctrine is and compare that with what the scriptures say. We identify the underlying principles in a verse. We analyze the scripture references found in their personal progress/faith in God/ or lessons. We choose a subject that we've studied and give a talk and bear our testimony on it. Eventually we will be making scripture journals and compile our faith promoting stories.
Tuesday - Markings and Values Day: This is the day that we learn how to mark our sciptures, not just the scripture mastery or meaningful scriptures, but putting titles on the top of the page, sectionalizing the entire chapter, color-coding, recording insights, stickers, and cross-reference notes. We practice the rule of three (reading a verse or selection three times - recording more insight with each reading). This is also the day that we recite our family value for the month and the scripture we have chosen to represent it. We find examples in the scriptures of that value being exhibited and then we find examples of ourselves exhibiting that value.
Wednesday - Scripture Master & Hero Day: Wednesday is our day away from home so we will use the travel time to memorize our scripture mastery. Using a combination of flashcards, repetition, fill in the blank, first letters, and scrambled words. We also are doing a combined Hero Study to make the people in the scriptures come alive and personal to each of us. We've chosen to start with Esther and will not only do a biography study but compare her character with our time lifestyle choices (media, Sabbath, Friends, gospel principle application, etc.)
Thursday - Storied Scripture Day: This is the time that I read directly from the scriptures the account of a particular story, and while I read, each child is creating a story book - drawing and writing a summary of the story on folded and stapled pages. Hopefully we'll have a large collection of little scritpure story books that the child has a relationship with. We will also read from the scripture readers.
Friday - Scripture Snack Day: Yes a snack, a treat of some kind that the kids get to eat as I tell the account from the scriptures in my own words, followed by a verbal testing of their understanding or application of principle discussed. Sometimes the scripture snack (for my drama loving kids) will be re-enactment the story. Sometimes it will be to play with some special toys during the story.
We've only just begin this regime this week, but already our morning devotional is rich, filling, and spiritually satisfying. So between evening family study and personally challenging devotional, I'm hoping the scriptures will take on sweet personal meaning.
