Reading Scriptures

Yesterday was fast Sunday.  The girls are so good about it and rarely complain when they go without eating or drinking.  One of the things that I bore testimony of is our current scripture reading project.  The Stake President in our stake, (President Farr), has challenged every family to read the Book of Mormon together before the end of the year.  We have taken that challenge (even though I am not sure we will complete it by the end of December) and are currently in the Book of Mosiah.  I am so proud of the girls.  They murmur about a lot of things sometimes, :-)  but scripture study isn't ever one of them.  Since we have started this, they get up every morning without complaint, get out their scriptures, snuggle under a blanket on the couch and we all take turns reading.  It is such a testimony to me, that these young girls are willing to give up extra sleep and time to get ready for school, in order to read the scriptures.  Sometimes, I think it is harder on me than it is on them!  Every once in awhile, John has to get me up twice.  Usually after I have been out for a good part of the night, but still.  We never have to beg the girls to get up in the morning.  They are up, ready and waiting for us to join them.  I have seen some very immediate blessings from this reading time.  The first is that the morning yelling festival is pretty much gone.  The girls have really implemented a scheduled way to get ready and it works for them.  We get up, read the scriptures, have family prayer, get dressed, eat breakfast, pack lunches and gather together school things to leave at 7:00am for the school bus.  There is no more yelling to hurry, and very little frustration.  This used to be our worst time of day for fighting and bickering.  Now it is our best and most productive time.  As well as being our happiest family time.  In addition to scripture study, we have made sure that we are doing family prayer every morning and every night.  I am still amazed at the difference in attitude that I see with just these few simple changes.  I am excited to implement other courses of study with the girls.   I bought a book at Time Out for Women on Studying the Book of Mormon.  We are using that to have short lessons on the meaning of what we are reading.  Today, we read Mosiah 2:17, which is one of my favorite scriptures.  It states, "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom;  that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."  We talked about service and what it means in our lives.  We also talked about how Heavenly Father blesses us when we serve others and how it makes us feel.  The really amazing thing is that even when we are running late because of the length of the chapters that we are reading (like this morning for instance), the girls still don't fight or bicker.  They just get ready a little faster and help each other to make sure they can all get to the bus on time.  They are learning service by serving each other.  I am so proud of all my children.  They are such an example to me.  It is a great blessing to watch them make decisions and good choices.  I know the gospel is true and that, if we live it, the Lord will bless us as we strive to keep the commandments in our lives.