Morning and Night Scripture Study

One of the best things we have done for our family has been to do scripture study both morning and night. I remember hearing some speaker comment how doing occasional scripture study, with today's temptations and trials, would not give us the spiritual strength that we, along with our children, would need. And so we decided that we would take the counsel and run with it. And what a blessing it has been!

First of all, we all know that young children have a super short attention span. So, doing it both morning and night, I felt like we could do two short lessons instead of one long one. And it has worked out wonderfully! Of course, there is nothing wrong with doing just one short lesson either, but there are benefits to two for sure.

If your mornings are rushed like mine are so many days, then doing a quick short study is probably all you're going to have time for. We still like to do it so that it sets a tone for the day. If this is the case then just make the effort to do something more meaningful at night.

But if your children are still young or you have a late start school schedule or are on a school break then you may find that you are able to take your time studying the scriptures during breakfast, before or after. This is great because then you can do a short quick lesson or review at bedtime and have more time to wrestle with the kids getting their teeth brushed and Pj's on;) Or more time to read a favorite bedtime story. It's great.

The good news is that if you aim to do it twice a day and one day comes along that is particularly busy, and we all know it will, odds are that you will still be able to find one time that works out for you.

But what I have come to love most about doing scripture study twice a day with the kids is that over time they have taken responsibility for the morning study. They know that before they do anything else they should do scripture study. There are have been times when we have forgotten and they have reminded us. I have been so surprised that at such a young age they have adopted the morning as their personal scripture study time, whereas, bedtime is a definite family study time. They even do it many days without our help or instruction.

Of course, if it seems overwhelming to do it morning and night, just do it once a day, but maybe you can vary the time you do it to find what works best for your children and each individual child. Every family is different and every child is different. The point is just to do it when they are young so they develop a habit and love for the scriptures.

Happy reading!