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Didn’t really see a thread like this anywhere (doesn’t mean there isn’t one). But thought it would be fun if people posted interesting ways they teach or approach scripture stories/study with their children. Jonah:
We went over the story of Jonah last night. My daughter (6) already knew the story. Her take was that Jonah should have been obedient. My take was to talk to her about how Jonah got another chance to do what he was asked and to talk about how God gives us lots of chances because he loves us and how we need to give other people lots of chances too.
Since my two boys don’t really pay attention most lessons get directed to my daughter. She asked if the story of Jonah was real (she is on a fiction, non-fiction kick right now asking all the time which is which). I told her I don’t know if it is or not, but that it doesn’t really matter. There is something powerful and interesting we can learn from the story. She insisted the story is real, and I told her that is great if she thinks that, but the most important thing is what we can learn from the stories.
Anyone else have any other stories they would like to share? I’m interested even in hearing when you start actually reading from the scriptures, how that works, what you share/don’t share, frequency and good, bad, funny stories.
I’ll be honest. We don’t do family scripture study. My husband had a faith crisis first. I was the TBM still. When we tried to read as a family, it annoyed him and triggered many negative feelings. He said he no longer wished to participate, and I respected that. He said if he were reading with us, he’d feel compelled to contradict the words and share alternate ideas. At the time, it seemed like a recipe for contention. We didn’t want to put our son through that. So we decided instead to focus on commonalities when we are together. We do outings as a family that are fun, but without any formal FHE “lesson.” It works. If we have something we wish to share with spouse or child on spiritual topics, we tend to do it “one on one” now.
Also, now that I’ve had my own “faith crisis,” I understand where my husband is coming from. I struggle with many teachings of the church, and with some scriptures. I don’t know what to teach my son about the church. Some days I am gung-ho and want to share all about the church, Jesus Christ, and my testimony. Other days I don’t know what I believe, feel the church is false, and I need to “protect” my family from some of the harm I see there.
I am so ambivalent. I’m sure it confuses our son. Trying to keep a cohesive narrative about God, the church, and spirituality in our home is difficult. As our son gets older, he’ll just have to deal with a lot of “shades of gray.” I mourn that I can’t give my son the comforting certainty that I felt growing up. But I can’t give what I don’t have.
😮 (I’m glad you have been able to have positive experiences in your home, with scripture study. Wishing you the best!
We read from the Book of Mormon most nights as a family. My kids are young enough that we don’t spend a long time on this. Our youngest is usually in bed by the time we do family scripture reading, but the next is still just 3 years old and we have to cater to that kind of attention span. DW and I are usually exhausted to boot, and if the kids are tired, cranky, or hyper there’s a strong chance of tempers being lost (theirs and ours) in the middle of scripture reading, and that’s obviously something we strive to avoid. So we just read one verse per kid, giving the longer ones to the older kids. We stop between scriptures to give definitions, ask questions, or summarize to make sure the kids are following the story. It only takes us about 10 minutes. If there is something doctrinal to discuss, I usually try to stay out of it and let my wife handle that part since she’s a faithful believer and more concerned about accuracy in that arena. Thankful wrote:I am so ambivalent. I’m sure it confuses our son. Trying to keep a cohesive narrative about God, the church, and spirituality in our home is difficult. As our son gets older, he’ll just have to deal with a lot of “shades of gray.” I mourn that I can’t give my son the comforting certainty that I felt growing up. But I can’t give what I don’t have.
😮 (I struggle with this as well. I think the stories can be fun and interesting. I don’t want to pile on my belief too heavily because I may be wrong about everything, and I don’t want my daughter to feel like an outsider at church by saying something like, “my day said Jonah isn’t a real story” and feeling some heat for it. But I also want to make sure my kids get a broader spectrum of thought than what is just offered at church. So still trying to find a balance (I do accept that the right balance might never be found).
Daeruin wrote:We read from the Book of Mormon most nights as a family. My kids are young enough that we don’t spend a long time on this. Our youngest is usually in bed by the time we do family scripture reading, but the next is still just 3 years old and we have to cater to that kind of attention span. DW and I are usually exhausted to boot, and if the kids are tired, cranky, or hyper there’s a strong chance of tempers being lost (theirs and ours) in the middle of scripture reading, and that’s obviously something we strive to avoid. So we just read one verse per kid, giving the longer ones to the older kids. We stop between scriptures to give definitions, ask questions, or summarize to make sure the kids are following the story. It only takes us about 10 minutes. If there is something doctrinal to discuss, I usually try to stay out of it and let my wife handle that part since she’s a faithful believer and more concerned about accuracy in that arena.
Thanks for sharing Daerium. Good approach.
-SBREd
I tried to do it with my family. My wife wasn’t into it, my son got cranky, and my daugther told me she wanted to do it on her own. So, I gave up. there were enough frustrations in the house associated with keeping it clean and keeping the marriage happy that I figured I’d give up on that one. But I am teaching my kids all the time about different things — often, learning by doing, or when informal teaching moments come upon us. I’m going to have to be content with that.
We have done scripture study off and on for several years (more off than on actually). For me, one of the best times was when we read the Old Testament. If you think about it, most Bible stories are Old Testament stories. My children have been well exposed to sanitized stories of Moses, Joseph, David, Daniel, etc. I wanted to read the original stories and then point out how many details get “lost in translation.” In addition, it was opportunity to explore some of the lesser known stories of the Bible (the building of the temple, the talking donkey, etc.) It was good while we were doing it.
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