Scripture Reading

By Jane C. Babcock

Each child needed something different.

Supper scripture reading in our family must have started before my memory did. It just happened, as normal and regular as supper itself. My father would always finish eating first, pass out the copies of the Book of Mormon, and tell us which chapters we would read that evening. We took our turns seriously. One night when a non-Mormon boyfriend was having supper with us, I wondered what would happen. Simple. He got a book like the rest of us and read his verses when his turn came.

But it wasn’t so easy when it came to reading the scriptures with our children. My husband and I read the scriptures ourselves, but now that I was the mother, supper time didn’t seem like scripture time. Our little children may have been ready for scripture reading, but we, their parents, weren’t. We heard of families that read the scriptures in the morning before breakfast. But, for us, breakfast time was even less reverent than supper time.

When our oldest daughter Jennilyn turned eight, we presented her with a Book of Mormon. She said it was her favorite birthday present and kept it in the bookcase by her bed. I wanted her to read it and to love it, but how does a child read the Book of Mormon? How could I help her? For a week I pondered the problem without mentioning my concerns to my husband or my daughter. I didn’t want to begin and fail. It was too important for that. I prayed about it. Could I stay with a reading program?

Finally, I was ready. I told my daughter that I’d like to read the Book of Mormon with her. We would read every night, one chapter a night. We wouldn’t miss. She was excited. I was apprehensive but determined.

It was rough at first. She read five verses, and I read five, but somehow it seemed harder than I remembered. We finally hit on a pattern that suited us better. She read a verse, then I read a verse. It went more quickly, and she didn’t get as tired. Before long the scripture words became familiar to her and she could read faster. As the weeks passed the younger children would often gather around and listen to us read.

One night when I was particularly busy and tired, my husband offered to read with her. Soon he was reading with her as often as I did.

Then I began reading First Nephi with our six-year-old, Deborah. Her reading skills were so different from Jennilyn’s that they couldn’t read together. It took extra time to read with two children separately, but it paid off in how much they seemed to value the special time alone with my husband or myself.

Four-year-old John refused to be left out. He would look at a page and solemnly recite, “And it came to pass …” He was so eager for a chance to read the Book of Mormon that we devised a scripture time with him. I would read a phrase, and he would repeat the words after me. Two-year-old David could hardly talk, but he tried to repeat phrases after John that John was repeating after us. We found special scriptures for him to repeat.

The children all have scripture time with Daddy too now. It is not like the scripture reading that I had when I was a child, but it works for us. And they were ready for it when we were.

[illustration] Illustration by Parry Merkley

• Jane C. Babcock, a homemaker, is Primary president in the Cedar Rapids Iowa Stake. She resides in the Davenport Second Ward.