Our children are growing up in a fast paced world where they are bombarded by messages daily. TV, social media, friends/teachers at school, and devices. What are the messages that your children are receiving? Have you taken the time to step back and notice?
What is your strategy to combat the negative/wrong messages your kids receive every day?
As parents, it is important that we safeguard our homes from the messages that will not bear good fruit. However, we cannot control our children’s environment every second of every day. That is why it is important to play good offense. We need to continually fill the minds of our children with little nuggets of wisdom, strength of character, and eternal good, right, and true messages. This is the only way to help our children succeed in this world of information and technology.
Motherhood means building the next generation. Take a minute to consider how you and your children spend your time. It’s never too late to re-evaluate and change!
And HUGE disclaimer here: My family is not perfect. If you spend 5 minutes with us, you will see that we have just as much to work on as the next! But I wanted to share with you some things that I know have helped us in raising our children with the scriptures and other good messages in their lives.
As a family we study the scriptures together daily. It is not always what I would call a success. It is often a struggle to get their attention, and though we don’t take more than 5 minutes, I often find myself hoping that they got something out of it.
Have you ever heard of winning in the margins? That means making your down time, productive time. So I wanted to share with you a way that our kids use their down time (riding in the care or while falling asleep at night) for productive learning the scriptures time. These are our favorite scripture aids for kids, called:
My kids have been listening to Scripture Scouts since they were born. And as a result, they know scripture stories like the back of their hand! Even better than I do! Scripture Scouts takes all of the different books of scripture and breaks them down into fun stories with songs that are very entertaining. My kids LOVE them.
For a description of the Scripture Scouts and an audio clip, CLICK {HERE}:
My kids learn about Jesus Christ’s life, teachings, and all kinds of scripture stories. You can buy each separately:
The New Testament
The Old Testament
The Book of Mormon
The Proclamation to the Family (about the importance of families)
Lessons are woven into each learning experience with songs that are way too fun and catchy to forget! Basically, my kids have so much fun listening to these CDs and they have no idea that they are being taught and schooled to choose the right at the same time! We love to listen to in the car, or most of all when the kids are going to bed. I have had many people come up to me at church and tell me the wonderful insights my kids said in Sunday school… My husband and I can take some of the credit but we are so grateful for Scripture Scouts for making up for where we lack.
2. The Book of Mormon for Latter-Day Saint Families (There is also a New Testament, Old Testament, and Church History version!)
This is our family Book of Mormon that we study out of every day. It has pictures, commentary, word definitions, maps, etc. We love it! We usually have each of the kids read from their own set of scriptures follow along, and then my husband or I will read from the big family book of mormong showing pictures, talking about word meanings and story explanations. It also cross references with the Bible so that we can dig into that. When you order it either online or in the store, you can get it engraved for free.
3. The “Help Me Be Good” Book Series by Joy Berry
(There are 29 books total!)
This is just a fraction of our collection. We bought a bunch of these awesome books used from Amazon for around $5 or less last year for Christmas. Our kids are big readers and I always love to catch them reading these! These books cover nearly every topic that we as parents feel like we have to constantly address. I especially love it because the instruction isn’t coming from me!—- Because if it was, oftentimes the kids will just tune out!
In the end, nothing can replace good old fashioned family scripture. Sitting down with your kids and reading with them is the best thing we can do! Gordon B. Hinckley said,
“Read to your children. Read the story of the Son of God. Read to them from the New Testament. Read to them from the Book of Mormon. It will take time, and you are very busy, but will prove to be a great blessing in your lives as well as in their lives. And there will grow in their hearts a great love for the Savior of the world, the only perfect man who walked the earth. He will become to them a very real living being, and His great atoning sacrifice, as they grow to manhood and womanhood, will take on a new and more glorious meaning in their lives.” (“Messages of Inspiration from President Hinckly,” 2)
We all struggle with parenting, feelings of inadequacy and like nothing we teach is sinking in—- but I love knowing that God cares about these kids too and He will make up for where I lack (which is a lot!). Join with me in trying to become the mother that Julie B. Beck describes in her talk, “Mothers Who Know”
Of Mothers she says…
“Their goal is to prepare a rising generation of children who will take the gospel of Jesus Christ into the entire world. Their goal is to prepare future fathers and mothers who will be builders of the Lord’s kingdom for the next 50 years. That is influence; that is power.”
Hang in there and just give yourself a pat on the back for TRYING to read scriptures and TRYING to teach our kids to be functioning human beings. The success is in the effort, and I know we will be blessed!!!
Read this talk for inspiration:
“No Greater Joy Than To Know That They Know”
~XOXO Laura
What are some books or suggestions that have worked for you to teach your kids the scriptures or other good humanly attributes 
?
Read About Having a Stocking for Jesus HERE.
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I have really enjoyed reading your website! My husband and I have been discussing this a lot lately. We live in CA and are constantly worried about the messages they receive from peers and media. Thanks for sharing these tips! (Also really enjoyed the simplicity article!)
Thank you for your kind words! It is so hard to figure out what to do— and really I have found that the power of prayer is real. I always pray to know how I can help each individual child with whatever they are going through… whether they have told me what they are going through or not. After all, God knows. There have been times where I find myself asking them questions or having a conversation with them that I never planned or saw coming. I believe that is the spirit directing my mind to help them with what they need. Way to go, and I am so happy to help in a small way.