1 Nephi 11

I love when Nephi explains Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life.  One of the reasons I love it is because it can capture the attention of children.  Many things in the scriptures are hard for kids to grasp, but most kids I teach pay close attention when I talk about the Tree of Life.  It has definitely caught Isaac's attention recently.  I think everyone who will read this blog knows that Isaac is my eight year old who has Down syndrome, and therefore has trouble sometimes following along during the Primary class I teach which includes him and five other cute kids.  But since we talked about the Tree of Life, he brings it up at most Family Home Evenings.  It is precious.

Thinking along these lines, I just want to say that yesterday all my kids paid attention during scripture reading AND contributed to the discussion!  It is especially amazing to me because we weren't studying any of the 'kid scriptures' like the Tree of Life, the stripling warriors, or Ammon defending the king's sheep.  We were studying 2 Nephi 15---an Isaiah chapter that compares Israel to a vineyard!  I was pretty much in awe and would like to accept no credit for this small miracle.  I don't think I was doing anything different than I do other days.  I honestly feel like it was a tender mercy from the Lord.  I really needed that.

I suppose I'm sharing this because I would like to bear my testimony that family scripture reading is worth all the effort even though some of the time it might not seem like it.  So many times the little ones are cuddled next to me, staring into space while Evan yawns through his turn at reading so that we can barely understand him.  Kimball is staring at the clock, nervous that I will go over time and make him late for school.  When Kimball was my only child, we studied from the Book of Mormon stories book that has all the pictures.  As he got older, we flipped through my scriptures and read 'kid scriptures' that captured his attention, but now we just read straight through and sometimes I feel bad the little ones don't get as much personalized attention.  So yesterday meant a lot to me.

We only got halfway through chapter 15 and ended with verse 20:

"Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil..."

A very important scripture for our day.  It was great to talk to the kids, to hear Kimball and Evan's contributions to the conversation and take Josie and Isaac's comments and relate them back to the topic at hand no matter how far out there they were, and really they weren't too far off.  It was fun because Josie talked about staying on Jesus' path and not Satan's.  Isaac brought up the "Nephites" and the "Tree of Life."  Actual things from the scriptures!  I could see that EVERYONE felt like a part of a real gospel discussion.  Yes, today I am very thankful for 'kid scriptures,' like 1 Nephi 11 that bring gospel discussion within everyone's reach.