Getting Back To a Come, Follow Me Routine

By Hollie Wells

Maybe your new year’s resolution to have daily personal study or weekly family Come, Follow Me time has fallen through the floor. The busyness of the end of the school year and unstructured days of summer vacation can throw off any routine. Kids going back to school is the perfect time to add something to your routine. Coming back to the structure of school can help reinforce your family scripture and Come, Follow Me time. 

I have a few suggestions that can apply to both family and individual study. Here’s to jumping back into it! 

Read something small 

Five or ten verses even. Sure, you might get behind or need to skip some things, but if the day is long and you’re all tired, just read something. It’s better to stay consistent than to have one or two amazing, prepared studies a month. 

Listen to the scriptures 

Listening together or on your own can sometimes be a good change of pace. Follow along with the printed word to sharpen your focus and take things slow. Listen at a slower speed to catch words and concepts you may have missed before (this is challenging sometimes in a 1.5x speed world!) 

Share a word 

Have everyone share their favorite word or phrase from the reading. It doesn't even have to be something grand, it can just be a one-word, one-sentence response. No need to expand upon or explain. Often, the Spirit can and will fill in. 

Keep a family Book of Mormon 

It can be a large journal edition or your standard blue paperback version. Highlight verses together and write the name or initials of who highlighted it. Write dates, memories, comments. Add to it during scripture study or after a meaningful Sunday School or seminary lesson. When children can contribute, they feel empowered and invested. This can be a journal of sorts and a valuable tool of testimony for your children (or you) in moments of doubt.

Tell the stories 

Sum it up, act it out, watch a new or old Book of Mormon video, sing primary songs. It can be so enriching and clarifying to teach what is going to happen beforehand. Whenever I go to an opera or Shakespeare play, I always look up the plot so I know exactly what is going . It is so much easier to understand, therefore making it a more valuable and enjoyable experience. It can be the same with the scriptures. It’s easier to sift through the sometimes foreign archaic language when you know what is supposed to come next. 

Come together at a regular time 

Despite who might be there, hold your family scripture study at a regular time. Just do it with whoever you’ve got! Waiting until 10:30 pm for your teenager to get home or making everybody wake up at 5 am sometimes isn’t practical for families with varying ages and schedules. Pick a time when everyone is most likely to be together and do it even if someone might be missing once or twice. 

Bonus: if you have people over at your house, it can be a missionary opportunity! 

Get a notebook out 

Write things down. This year one of my new year’s goals is to write something in my scripture journal every day. I told myself it doesn’t have to be a profound insight or a completely original thought (or even a complete thought!). It could just be one word I found meaningful, or one verse that I maybe read over a few times because I thought it was beautiful. It doesn’t have to be much, I just wanted to concrete the habit of writing something daily. 

Read faster or slower than usual 

There are benefits to both reading the Book of Mormon swiftly and taking a deep dive. Maybe you only choose one chapter of the Come, Follow Me and focus on it for a whole week. You can use Institute or seminary manuals, find related conference talks, look up the definitions of words, and do a deep dive. Maybe you read through the week’s readings twice and try to grasp the whole picture and plot, the personality of the characters, and how the hand of God is seen throughout their lives. 

Remember this: the desire and efforts made to have better scripture study are repentance. Whatever you’re doing, keep going! Seek to be closer to the Lord and His Spirit through daily study of His word. I promise it will enrich your life and bring peace to your soul.