Diving Deeper in the Scriptures

Earlier this week I attended, and spoke, at our Relief Society meeting about how we can dive deeper into the scriptures. We shouldn't just snorkel (the surface) of the scriptures. We need to go deeper and scubadive. There is more beauty down deep. There was a lot of good information presented, and I wanted to share it with you...It also helps me to review it to better understand it and apply it to my life.
I love reading the scriptures. I love reading the scriptures with the boys. I feel like I am always learning something new and it's wonderful to see different stories being understood to children. I don't put in the time like I should or need. I remember on my mission we live, breath and eat the gospel and scriptures. I learned more that year and a half than I could have in 20 years. I don't have hours to search the scriptures, but I need to make it more of a priority. We've been doing pretty  good with family scripture study. And that's better than nothin'!

There were 5 different sections of Diving Deeper in the Scriptures meeting.

#1 Use the church student manuals as guides. It helps to explain more in detain and adds lots of quotes from other prophets and apostles. Also, using two Book of Mormons at the same time can help save time with cross referencing.
#2 Studying along with an institute class. There are some really great teachers out there that add to the spirit of the scriptures and explains details in other ways for a better understanding.
#3 Using study ideas from "Preach My Gospel". Again, it helps with additional history, quotes and other scriptures to better understand the principals of the gospel.
#4 The traveling scriptures. No matter where we go or what were doing to always bring the scriptures with us. Wisdom is a gift from God. "Lean not unto thy own understanding..." It is a privilege to read the scriptures. Use it.

Not sure which speaker said to have a study journal, but I thought it was a great idea and important to add in...

#5 Scripture study ideas for families. (This one was the topic I spoke/taught on so it's going to be a little longer!)

1Nephi 19:23 Liken the scriptures. I showed these books:

They are WONDERFUL additions to scripture study time. (For adults and youngsters!!)They have beautiful pictures, additional definitions, quotes, references, scriptures to cross reference....Scott hold this while we're reading as a family. The boys each have their own Books of Mormon as we read together.

I also showed a bunch of different board books for the younger children. (We take these to church with us).

Each of us takes turns and we read 1 verse each. We only read a few verses and then talk about it. Scott is great at asking questions and getting the boys (of all ages) interested in the story. Even Gavin and Brig's reads, with the help of a brother! It's not how much we can read at one sitting, but the children to understand the story and the point being made.

We don't just read the scriptures, we search them out. We use the Topical Guide, the index, J.S> Translation, and the Bible dictionary.

President Hinckley said "Our children should memorize a scripture every week.." The ones we started out with ( and are easier to start this project with) are the Articles of Faith. Then scripture masteries. Those scriptures are used the most. They notice at church in some one's talk. They just noticed a few times a few weeks ago in General Conference. It is always so great to be sitting there and one (or more) of the boys perks up a little and says "hey, that's that one Scripture...!"

We need to make scripture studying F-U-N!!!

• We've finger-painted with pudding to Lehi's dream before
• We have re3ading charts the boys color and add stickers to
• Color/draw pictures of the story we're reading
• make and use puppets and rein act the story we read
• sing songs
• race to find different scriptures
• dress-up
• act-out

One of my friend's makes hot chocolate and the children all sip it while they read the scriptures. I also log-on to the Internet and reach for different ideas, games and pictures to download. Sugardoodle, LDS org, Jennysmith, and scriptures4kids to name a few.

David O. McKay said, "Motherhood is a woman's most noble calling. A mother's most important responsibility is to bring children into the world and to come and teach them."

So why do we need to do this? It's a lot of work!

2 Nephi 25:26 So we can teach our children about Christ!!