The Family That Reads Together, Laughs Together

Over the years we have come up with many ways to make our family scripture study more meaningful, or at least ways to keep us focused on the task at hand.
A few years ago while we were studying the Old Testament, every time we came to a verse that began, "And the Lord spake unto Moses" we would have Caitlin read that phrase. It got to the point where we would say, "Caitlin" and she would say, "And the Lord spake unto Moses" without even looking down at her bible.

While studying the Book of Mormon, we started a tradition where each time it said "chief," the kids would give an Indian yelp. We had to stop that after a while, though, because it distracted from the spirit. It also scared me.

Last year, we read the New Testament and found that portions of it were harder to understand than the Old Testament. When we finally got to Revelation, I noticed that after too many months of reading the epistles, we were just reading words and not really getting into the fabulous imagery in Revelation. I just couldn't sit by as we read about beasts, thundering and lightnings, fire and destruction with no inflection at all; reading as if we were in the fast lane on the freeway going at least 5 miles-per-hour over the speed limit. My husband and children are really bright, so I assumed they could understand all that imagery at high speeds, but not me. I was missing out. My blond covered grey matter just couldn't keep up. Besides, why not enjoy some of the drama of Revelation while reading it.

So I proposed a contest. (Nothing like a contest to increase spirituality.) I suggested that at the end of each evening's scripture study, we would vote for the person who read it with the most expression by holding up our fingers, 1 for dad, 2 for mom, 3 for Joseph and so on. Knowing my children's almost too-well established self-esteems, I added a rule that no one could vote for themselves. Otherwise, we would have had a six-way tie each night.

It has revolutionized the way we read scriptures. (Now we don't tend to stay with the same scripture reading tradition for more than a year, so don't be surprised if we come up with something else in a while, but this has worked for several months.) Sometimes, we give little campaign speeches offering special favors in return for votes. If we have guests, we add them into our mix and vote for them too. (Somehow the guests always win.) Sometimes we read with our British accents, and once I read a conference talk with my Transylvanian vampire accent. (I won that night.) Roger has banned my vampire accent. He says it's not reverent enough. (I think he just doesn't want Caitlin thinking about Twilight while we are trying to study the gospel.) Now we are reading the Doctrine and Covenants. Joseph likes to read the word, "Behold" in his deep authoritative bass tone. Everyone loves his "Behold" voice so much, and he wins so much of the time because of it, we all fight over the verses that say "Behold" trying to imitate him but never succeeding because he is just the best.

Now, lest you get the wrong impression, we are not silly the whole time we are reading the scriptures. Just a smattering of family humor keeps us engaged.

I hope you don't think this was a boast post either. I tried to be totally humble in the way I subtly let you know we have studied the entire standard works together including every single word of the Old Testament. Yes, completely, totally humble. Like I always am. (Maybe I'm the real reason we have to have the no-voting-for-yourself rule?)

Anywho, one more fun tradition. Up until this year, Preston was too young to take a turn reading, so for his contribution to family scripture study, we would have him hand out the scriptures. I was joking one night that someday in the distant future, we would be gathered as a family with grandchildren and great grandchildren and it would still be the duty/privilege of Preston's descendants to hand out the scriptures. Then making up the name of a future grandchild I said in my perfect replica of a granny voice, "Erastus George, will you hand out the scriptures?" Well, the name stuck, and now, whoever is assigned to hand out the scriptures goes by the name Erastus George for the study period. The sad thing is, now my children may feel obligated to actually name one of their children Erastus George. How hip.

Actual Dramitization. Not a real scripture reading event.