Scripture Study

When Jake and I became engaged, so, December of 2009, we decided that we wanted to lay the foundation of companionship scripture study and prayer.  Each night, before we went home to separate houses, we would read in the Book of Mormon (Sometimes, since he went to school in Logan, we'd just do it over the phone or that blasted Skype).  Then we'd kneel in prayer, he took the odd days, I took the even days.  Like Marisa's family, mine was never really great at family scripture study or family prayer for that matter, so the fact that Jake was persistent in helping us remember meant, and still means, a great deal to me.

Once we got married, since we'd been in the habit of praying and reading together already, the habit stuck.  We did fairly well until our little Lucy came along.  That made things a little bit more of a challenge, because our schedule, routine, everything was thrown off.  We tried to remember to read, but it didn't happen as often as we would've liked.  Jake suggested we read each night in bed before we went to sleep.  Thank worked ok for like 2 days, and then he discovered that he'd read, and I'd fall asleep (I'm NOT a night person.  Lucy goes to bed around 7, I go to bed around 8:30...and I love it). So he came up with the idea of "Feeding time is reading time."  He would read to Lucy and I while I nursed her right before bed.  That worked out great because Lucy was being exposed to the scriptures, I didn't fall asleep, and every once in a while, especially during the war chapters of the Book of Mormon, Jake acts it out as he reads it. Now, since Lucy is on a bottle, we take turns reading/feeding every other night.

Long story short...we're consistent at READING the scriptures, but not necessarily APPLYING the scriptures to our lives.  I adapted the goal a little bit this week to not simply reading, but discussing it after we read.  Typically we put Lucy down to bed before any discussion happens, but I've really liked it so far.  Jake has such great insights and I learn so much from him.  Its been kind of interesting to see, simply over the last few days, how much more I think about what we've read throughout the next day.  Another thing I'd like to work on is reading the other books of scripture.  We've finished the Book of Mormon 4 times, and have studying the other books on our own and talked about it a little, but it'd be neat to learn more from the scriptures and from Jake.

I learned something from the dearest ANGELA PAULSEN that she most likely won't post on here.  We visited them last year when Wally was about 18 months or so.  Right after dinner, an alarm would go off on their cell phone.  Ange and Justin would start to sing "Book of Mormon Stories" and Wally, most often, would stop whatever he was doing and sing the song with them.  He knew it was time for scripture study.  Justin would then read a bit out of the Book of Mormon.  Of course, Wally didn't always pay complete attention, but he was learning.  I LOVE THAT!!!  With or without permission Ange, I'm using that idea.  Thanks for the great example!!!!