Studying the Scriptures Together

If you have enough copies of the standard works, give one book to each member of your family. If you don’t have enough for each person, let them share those books that you do have.

• What are these books called? (The standard works, scriptures.)

• Why are they important to us? (They contain the truth. They contain the word of God.)

Explain that Heavenly Father gave us these books for special reasons. Have your family read 1 Nephi 19:22–24. Nephi lists three reasons for having scriptures. Display the wordstrips or posters as you identify these three reasons:

1. God loves his children—“that they might know concerning the doings of the Lord in other lands, among people of old” (vs. 22).

2. We can learn to know Jesus—“that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them” (vs. 23).

3. We can get help—“for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning (vs. 23).

Refer to the first wordstrip or poster, “God loves his children.” Show the four pictures of families from the scriptures that Heavenly Father has helped. Discuss who the people are, what happened to them, and which book contains their story:

1. Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus left for Egypt (Matthew 2:13–15).

2. Moses and the children of Israel journeyed to the promised land (Exodus 3:7–8).

3. Lehi and his family traveled to America (1 Nephi 18:8, 23).

4. The Mormon pioneers moved west (D&C 136:1–10).

Remind your family that the scriptures tell us that Heavenly Father loves his children and wants to help them. We can be sure that he cares for us today and will bless us as he has blessed his children in the past.

Show the second wordstrip or poster, “We can learn to know Jesus.” Ask each family member to tell his favorite story about Jesus. After each person has responded, point out which book of scripture contains that story.

Look up some of the stories you have shared, and let your children see exactly where they are found. Let them read a few verses so that they can become familiar with the language of the scriptures.

Ask the following questions, and if your family members think the answer is in the book they are holding, tell them to stand up:

• What book tells about Jesus’ birth and life on earth? (The Bible.)

• What book tells about his visit to the American continent? (The Book of Mormon.)

• What book has instructions that Jesus gave to Joseph Smith? (The Doctrine and Covenants.)

• What book tells about when Heavenly Father and Jesus appeared to Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove? (The Pearl of Great Price.)

Be sure your family understands that all of the standard works tell us something about Jesus. The more we read about Heavenly Father and Jesus, the better we will know them.

Show the third wordstrip or poster, “We can get help.” Explain that Heavenly Father gave us the scriptures so that by reading about the lives of other people, their problems, and how they solved them, we can learn to handle our own problems better.

Read the following problems. After each one is read, have a family member look up and read the listed scriptures that would help in handling that problem. (Help smaller children.)

1. You are worried or fearful about something (Isaiah 41:10, D&C 112:10).

2. You are sad because you have done something you shouldn’t have (Isaiah 1:18, Moroni 6:8, D&C 58:42).

3. You feel bad because someone has been unkind to you (Proverbs 15:1–2, Matthew 6:14–15, Luke 6:27–30).

Explain that the scriptures can help us and be a blessing to us only if we will read them regularly and think and pray about them. Every family home evening lesson begins with a scripture. Encourage family members always to have the standard works with them at family home evenings so that they can look up scriptures during the lessons.

Help your children read directly from the scriptures. Help them to understand what is said so that the scriptures will become familiar to them. Point out that every Latter-day Saint home should have these books and use them.

If you are not now reading the scriptures regularly as a family, discuss how to begin. Decide on a time, a place, and the book you would like to read first. Some families have found early morning, before or after breakfast, to be the best time for scripture reading. Others choose to do it at dinner time or before family prayers at night. Discuss all these possibilities with your family, and decide what is best for you.

Emphasize that reading the scriptures only ten minutes or one chapter a day can greatly increase the spirituality of your home.

If you are already reading together, have one or two family members share what reading the scriptures regularly means to them.

Have a separate lesson on each of the standard works (you may wish to treat the Old and New Testaments as separate books). In each lesson, discuss where the works came from, what they contain, and some of their important messages. (See chapter 10, “Scriptures,” in Gospel Principles [31110], pp. 52–56.)

Have a family home evening on locating scriptures. Write the names of the books (Omni, Helaman, Haggai, etc.) on flash cards. As each card is shown, family members tell in which standard work that book is found.

For older members, use individual scripture stories, names of prophets, or familiar passages. The names of books can also be mixed up and then arranged in the order in which they are found in the standard works.

Have an evening of games. You can include games such as the following:

1. Question and answer games. Ask questions such as “What prophet called down fire from heaven?” or “What book comes after Zechariah?” Then let family members find the answer in the standard works (Elijah, in 1 Kings 18, 2 Kings 1; and Malachi).

2. Scripture chase. Use a word or phrase, such as “Love is necessary to do God’s work.” Then have family members race to find the appropriate scripture (D&C 4:5).

3. Matching games. Play matching games, matching such things as scriptural characters with events or people with places.

Adjust game difficulty to fit your family’s age and knowledge.

You may wish to award points or prizes to make the games more interesting. If so be careful that each family member has a chance to share in the prizes.

Have a lesson on ways to study scriptures. Discuss how to outline, read for understanding, or mark passages. Use references and the Topical Guide in the Latter-day Saint edition of the King James Version of the Bible, and relate the scriptures to our own day (see 1 Nephi 19:23).

Adapt the lesson to fit the age level of your family (this would not work well for very young children). Older children and adults may wish to practice these skills and compare results.

Read aloud Joseph Smith—History 1:1–14. Show how the scriptures helped Joseph Smith find the answer to his problem. Then ask family members to suggest passages of scripture that have made a difference in their lives or the lives of people they know. Discuss how the scriptures can help us solve our daily problems. Point out that the scriptures are personal messages to us from our Heavenly Father.

Discuss the importance of a personal program of scripture study. Take time to have each family member set up a practical scripture study schedule of his own if he does not have one. Family members may select their own part of the standard works to study. Have them schedule their reading on a calendar as a visible reminder.

Have family members keep track of their reading, and promise the whole family a treat if they meet some agreed percentage of their goals.

End with a twenty-minute quiet period during which the members of your family can begin their scripture study program.

Young children may not be capable of scripture reading on their own, but they do enjoy hearing the scriptures read aloud. A regular program of reading scriptures to them will help make later scripture reading a familiar and enjoyable experience.