Sunday Thoughts

We often read scriptures together in the evenings. Grace and Caleb are good readers and they can read any of the verses. They do need help with a word here or there, but they do well. Joshua watches them and he wants to read the scriptures. We tell him that he can read the scriptures and then we try to help him read the next verse. That usually does not work out well for Joshua. He wants to be able to read by himself, like the older children. What does he read? Joshua's verse, usually has the following elements:

• And it came to pass
• I, Nephi
• remember
• A gospel phrase from whatever we have been talking about lately

(We have just finished 1 Nephi in the Book of Mormon lately, which may give some context.)

Joshua has been learning the song "Follow the Prophet" in nursery. An example of something he could read as his verse would be, "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, had to remember that Jonah was swallowed by a whale." (He has never said that, but it does not sound that off from what he might say.)

It is funny to hear his interpretation of the scriptures.

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Recently, our stake president asked us to discuss General Conference talks during family home evening meetings. Mary and I thought that was an excellent idea, but we were nervous since the attention span of our children does not usually last the 10-15 minutes of such a talk.

We decided to try it out last Monday. It went incredibly well. The kids really listened and we had a great discussion about perseverance. Obedience brings blessings. We hope that the lessons continue to have a rapt audience.