And It Came To Pass...

We've been trying to read scriptures with the kids. We do our best to fit family time and spiritual moments in where we can, but I'll be honest, it's not easy. We've found that scriptures right before bed seems to work the best. On days we're actually on schedule (which is not often enough in the summer, but that's how it goes) we try to do baths, teeth, books, and then put the kids in bed while we read to them. That way they're sort of trapped and learning by osmosis if nothing else. :) Then we finish off with family prayer. Preston usually rolls around talking to himself or looking at another book in his crib, but Dylan follows pretty well most of the time. I try to stop every few verses and ask questions to make sure he's understanding. And he gets the basic story that way. Even though it's frustrating, I love helping the kids understand the scriptures a little bit more. Dylan will randomly say something like, "Yeah, I need to be good. I don't want to be like Laman and Lemuel, huh?" So cute. Today we were reading about Nephi's family and their journey to the promise land. You know the whole binding with cords bit? Well, that made Dylan pretty mad so he was growling and pretending to be a leopard by the end. But he listened to the whole story. Afterwards, he asked if there were any leopards or cheetahs since we finished off with a verse talking about the beasts they found: cow, ox, ass and goats. I told him I didn't think so, which lead to his next request. He wanted to read us scriptures before we said our prayers. I tend to be a softy and allow for stalling when it's somehow spiritual so I said yes even though I knew Marcos was done having fun. Dylan took the scriptures and flipped through them until he came to the Noah's arc story. According to Dylan, it was located somewhere in St. Luke. The following is what I remember about Dylan's account of Noah's arc.

...And it came to pass that Noah was gathering his animals and putting them in the arc. And the great storm came and was blowing the boat around. And the animals were frightened and they curled together in their families. And it came to pass that Noah was upstairs and went down to the crates where the animals were. And his wife went with him too. What was her name? And the animals were very happy. Okay, now what did you learn from that?... I repeated the story back as he had told it. Then he turned to one of the maps and showed us where the arc had sailed and how they went through the land where Jesus had lived.

I had my hand up by the side of my face the whole time so I could try to look serious while I held back my chuckles. It was the funniest thing ever! He was so serious. By the way, we are far from gospel experts, but we don't make stuff up. Dylan does mix up his scripture stories at times though so if he ever tries to teach you "false doctrine," it didn't come from us. :)